A TEDMED Recap

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America Bracho, Andrew Solomon, art and science, best practice, big data, case study, connect, design, favorite, Great Challenges, health, health and wellness, healthcare, innovation, inspire, learn, list, making health contagious, meaningful, prevention, real, recap, recommendation, recommendations, relevant, research, review, Richard Simmons, slideshare, small data, technology, TED talks, TEDMED, TEDMED 2013, TEDMED talks, TEDxFortWayne, wellness, work

Two weeks ago, I was deeply immersed in the wonder of TEDMED. The 2013 conference was hosted at Washington D.C.’s Kennedy Center and proved to be the perfect setting for a conference built around innovation, design, art and science. The theme for this year’s TEDMED was Unexpected Connections.

Using this theme, I shared a five minute review of my three and half days at TEDMED with the attendees of TEDxFortWayne on April 27, 2013. When Craig asked me to share briefly, I wasn’t sure how to express what it meant to have this ‘bucket list’ opportunity and how I gained even more than I imagined. It was difficult to capture the experience and not just the education in such a brief time, but if you’re interested in a visual recap of the experience, my slides follow below.

Over the next few weeks, TEDMED will be releasing the videos of the talks that occurred on the Opera House stage. A few I recommend watching include:

• “What Happens when Patients Become Leaders on the Health Team?” by America Bracho, Director of Latino Health Access [WATCH]
• “How Does an Illness Become an Identity?” by Andrew Solomon, winner of the National Book Award [WATCH]
• “What does a $100 million Pubic Health Data Revolution Look Like?” by Christopher J.L. Murray, Director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation [WATCH]
• “If Truth is Beauty, Can Art Be Science?” by David Odde & Black Label Movement [WATCH]
• “What Happens When Each Patient Becomes Their Own “Universe” of Unique Medical Data” by Deborah Estrin, Co-founder of Open mHealth [WATCH]
• “How Did Volunteers Save More than 40,000 Lives in 3 minutes (each) Last Year?” by Eli Beer, Founder and President of United Hatzalah [WATCH]
• “What if We Treated Violence Like a Contagious Disease?” by Gary Slutkin, Founder and Executive Director of Cure Violence [WATCH]
• “How Can Design Principles Lead to More Discovery and Better Treatment?” by John Maeda, President of RISD [WATCH]
• “What Happens When Death is What’s For Dinner?” by Michael Hebb, Food Provocateur and Founder of One Pot [WATCH]
• “This City is Going on a Diet” by Mick Cornett, Mayor of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma [WATCH]
• “Is the “Obesity Crisis” Just a Disguise for a Deeper Problem?” by Dr. Peter Attia, Founder and President of Nutrition Science Initiative [WATCH]
• “When is a Wheelchair an Ultra-Light Submarine?” by Sue Austin, artist [WATCH]
• “What is the Sound of E. Pluribus Unum?” by Professors of the Washington Conservatory [WATCH]

Were you at TEDMED? Which talks are you recommending to others? If you weren’t, do any of the above peak your interest?

Creative Card Technology

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#QRcodeInTheWild, design, learn, mom, qr code, qr codes, quiltting, random, scrapbooking, Social media, Stkr.It, StkrIt, tools, Very Merry Christmas, women

Tis the season for holiday cards, right? Are you looking to take your annual mailing to the next level? Look no further than Stkr.It!

For me, it was one of those “You had me at QR code” moments. But here is what is so great. The application goes so much farther than just a holiday card. Imagine the quilt your grandmother made you also being able to play an audio clip she recorded for you. Or your scrapbook page coming to life with video instead of card stock.

I don’t quite understand how they do it, but it appears easy to use. When you purchase a set, it includes a set number of stickers or fabric squares. The maximum file size is 50 MB or approximately 2 minutes of video. The best part: messages are stored for a lifetime. Prices range $2.99 to $9.99 depending on which set you select.

Do you love this idea too? What will you Stkr?

Urban Farm and Gardens

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airport, green initiatives, inspire, learn, O'Hare urban garden, Our Little Acre blogspot, random, Springwise, urban farm and market, urban garden

O’Hare Urban Garden, 2012

This article from Springwise on an urban farm and market reminds me of the urban garden I saw in Chicago’s O’Hare airport in September. It caught my attention as I was walking between concourses. As I stopped to snap this photo, I wondered the following:

• Who owns the garden? As in who committed financial resources to place the structure and seeds.
• Who receives the garden harvest? Are fellow travelers allowed to enjoy?
• Is this a one-off or part of a comprehensive urban garden plan?

As I write this post, I don’t know the answers to the above questions. Regardless of the answers, I appreciate that it made me pause and consider the opportunity for urban gardens in my hometown airport and other locations that would cause people to pause and ponder to the potential.

UPDATE: This post by northwest Ohio writer and gardener answers questions 1 and 3. I love that she had the same experience I did walking through the airport and that she did the extra research!

Speaking of hacking…FedEx Day

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Atlassian, Daniel Pink, facebook, FedEx Days, Hack, Hackathon, Hacker, How to innovate, innovation, random, relevant

I saw this idea posted by Daniel Pink and I couldn’t help but connect it to the term “hacker.” Obviously, the date to submit a new name for this event (don’t say FedEx) has passed but that doesn’t mean the opportunity for your business to have it’s own Hack Day has passed as well.

Maybe you’re not Facebook with Hackathons. Maybe you’re not Atlassian with FedEx Days. But, you are YOU and you have a talented group of coworkers who are bound to have some ideas to share. Have you asked them? Are you willing to dedicate a full 24 hours for them to work on whatever they want and report back to their colleagues?

I can only imagine the possibilities if every organization had their own dedicated time to hack.

I’m a Hacker and a Writer

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#CSNISM, AdFed Fort Wayne, Being a Writer, Ben Barry, Cancer Services of Northeast Indiana, Erik Deckers, facebook, Fort Wayne, Hack Everything, Hacker, learn, real, relevant, work, Writer

If you know me, you’re probably thinking “What?!” and I couldn’t agree more. That was until I heard Ben Barry speak at an AdFed event and Erik Deckers speak at a Cancer Services Social Media Luncheon. Now I’m convinced that I am in fact both a hacker and a writer.

What I learned about hacking from Ben Barry is that it can be another word to describe innovation. When you come up with a new idea, or a revision, or a new way to use something previously created, you are hacking. He and his Facebook coworkers do this regularly through Hackathons and some of the Facebook experiences you have each day are the result of these hacks.

If you read this blog regularly, you can tell by my grammar that I am not a professional writer. I don’t claim to be, nor do I plan to make my living through writing. That said, Erik Deckers encourages anyone who writes to consider themselves a writer and to do so with purpose. He gave really great tips at how to improve your writing and I’m looking forward to (hopefully) more purposeful writing. (Inside joke intended for those who also heard Erik speak.)

I feel like I’m part of the cool club now. 🙂

What about you? Would you consider yourself a hacker or a writer?

‘Tis the Season for…Conferences?

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#PowerOf2, #ReThinkFW, conference, connect, Fort Wayne, healthcare, learn, Lee Odden, list, marketing, nonprofit, Optimize Conference Attendance, Power of 2, Power of Two, PRC Excellence in Healthcare, relevant, Social media, TEDxFortWayne, tools, twitter, work

What an exciting time! I’m so thankful to have been accepted to share a bit at two upcoming conferences. Each conference is as unique as what I’ll be speaking on. Here’s some info on each. Let me know if I’ll see you there!

• TEDxFortWayne – May 19, 2012 from 9a-5p

This local event is being held for the second year and is organized by an all volunteer group. All topics through the day will highlight an opportunity to #ReThinkFW. This is an amazing opportunity to hear from 20-somethings, community legends, physicians, volunteers, architects and more.

I’ll be speaking on the “Power of Two” and how collaborating and connecting can make our individual ideas more successful. Believing in an abundance of opportunities, we can take small and large steps to rethink our community and our potential.

Tickets are still available and there are some opportunities to get discounted tickets if needed.

• PRC Excellence in Healthcare Conference – June 3-6, 2012

A totally different type of event, this annual PRC conference offers best practice learning from peers in healthcare and through research. This is my first time attending and presenting and I’m looking forward to connecting with others in my field.

I’ll be presenting during a breakout on how to use social media to reach new heights. From the brochure: “In this session, you will learn how a non-profit health system leveraged the right resources and successfully incorporated social media into the opening of a new regional medical center. See how the strategy was built, why specific social media channels were used and the results of the social media engagement.”

If you’re attending one of these conferences or another, don’t miss Lee Odden’s “5 Ways to Optimize the Business Value of Attending Conferences.” I plan to use his recommendations myself!

App Review: SnapGuide

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App, app review, apps, design, how to, how to cover a canvas with fabric, learn, list, marketing, original content, original design, pinterest, random, recipe, relevant, review, SnapGuide, Social media, supplies, tools, work

Doing a routine check of the iTunes Store, I came across SnapGuide. (Please tell me everyone does the occasional surf for free music downloads and new apps. Yes?)

The app intrigued me based on my love for projects and recipes and Pinterest. The interface looked clean and simple to use so I thought I’d give it a try. Besides, it’s free!

 

I created: one simple guide with 8 steps on how to cover a canvas with fabric.

It generated*: 

• 271 Views
• 59 likes
• 2 comments

*at time of writing original post

My take on the app: If you have any knowledge to share that can be titled “How To:” and that can be shared using photos or videos, this is an app you should check out. It truly makes creating a tutorial easy. Whether you shoot your photos and video prior to making the guide, or shoot them during, it coaches you through each step. It even prompts you to add a “supplies” list.

While most are using this for tangible how-to’s, I think the possibilities are endless. Imagine using it for social media tutorials like “how to change your privacy settings” or even “how to create an infographic using _____.” I believe this app qualifies for the “social media” category because of the interactions you can have with other users around content. It seems like a logical companion for posting your original content on Pinterest as well.

And, based on my simple initial guide, the results (views and likes) are higher than my Pins, many blog posts and RTs. It seems like those are metrics not to be ignored.

Have you already used SnapGuide? What type of guide did you create? Is this your time hearing about (yet another) new social media tool? Will you give it a try?

Quote: What Stops You

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#betterinbetterout, Failure, Failure seldom stops you, Fear, inspire, Jack Lemmon, learn, Quote, relevant, Risky Business, Taking Risks, What stops you is the fear of failure, work

So, I am not a risk taker. I don’t mind making a decision that some might view as ‘risky’ but I like to make it after carefully, and sometimes quickly, considering the various aspects. Why? Because I’m fearful of the fallout of a bad choice. Yep, this quote holds true for me. How about you?

Quote: Knowledge and Wonder

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#betterinbetterout, 31 Days of Quotes, As knowledge increases wonder deepens, Charles Morgan, curiousity, inspire, knowledge, learn, Quote, relevant, research, sense of wonder

I find this to be true every time I read. Whether it’s a book, article, blog post, or quote, I’m always growing in my sense of wonder. The more I learn, the more I realize I need to grow in understanding.

Quote: A Willing Heart

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#betterinbetterout, #FW4Good, 31 Days of Quotes, be willing, Fort Wayne, inspire, John Heywood, Nothing is impossible to a willing heart, open heart, open mind, Quote, Tweetup for Good, volunteer, Volunteer Opportunities, willingness

The entire month of March and the 31 Days of Quotes is meant to inspire and encourage. But, you may have also noticed a trend among this week’s quotes. They’re centered around sharing the message of the next Tweet up for Good.

I’m not sure why, but there have only been six RSVPs (at time of writing) for the April celebration and no one attended the first volunteer opportunity last weekend with Neighborlink. I could speculate reasons. Personally, even I haven’t selected an opportunity yet because schedules are hectic. However, I’m pretty sure I know which opportunity I want to select and I did RSVP for the April event.

What’s holding you back? Whatever it is, nothing is impossible if your heart is willing.