For years, I have watched Ted Talk on Youtube and listened to many mindblowing and impactful speeches. For the past couple of years, I realized Kanata has been hosting Ted Talk events at the Brookstreet Hotel, called Tedx Kanata. Last year, I waited a bit too long and tickets were sold out before I even had time to clear up the logistics around the home to make sure I could attend. This year I bought my tickets 2 - 3 weeks in advance and was glad I did so because again, the tickets were sold out a week before the event.
Why do I want to go to Tedx Kanata? First, I want an excuse to be out meeting like-minded people. Second, I had joined Toastmaster (an international public speaking association that helps people like me acquire public speaking skills), and I would like to learn how to inspire others through public speaking.
As I was walking up and checking my coat in, I was praying that people would be friendly and not stuck up. I had pre-arranged to meet a Facebook friend there, whom I have never met in person before. As I was waiting for my soon-to-be-friend, this beautiful lady with a green scarf and green earrings caught my attention. She was alone so I said to myself, "what the heck! I would love people to come up to me and chat with me for a little bit." So I approached her and strike up a conversation, soon we learned that we are both passionate about diversity even though it is diversity in different ways. As my new friend walked up to me, the three of us started talking and found out that we all shared something in common, yet still vastly different. There was this synergy going here. It was fun to have this brief encounter, and I plan to follow up with them to stay in touch. I have achieved my first goal of attending Tedx Kanata.
Moving on to the second intention as to why I wanted to attend Tedx Kanata is to learn how the speakers' convey their messages and experiences to audiences with vastly different backgrounds. The core of Ted Talk is "ideas worth spreading." The thing is that there are so many ideas that are worth spreading, which one appeals to the mass audiences really depends on how you spread those ideas. All the speakers have one thing in common. They are great contributors, whether it was to the local community or their field of work. Personally, I find the ones that delivered their messages through storytelling to be the ones that are most engaging, relatable and memorable. All the speakers were fantastic, but I was surprised that the two of my three favourite speakers were men. It is usually the opposite. When a person shared their stories and moments of vulnerability, you felt it deeply with great empathy. What made those speakers even more outstanding was the humility that came across in their messages. Those are qualities that move mountains, according to me. That made me question myself. If I was the person standing up there with that kind of merit and contributions, would I speak with a humbled heart or would I talk like an arrogant arse? I hope it wouldn't be the latter.
I thought to myself, someday I hope to be able to stand in front of a group of women and young girls and tell them that they are good enough. I want to stand in front of audiences with diverse ethnic backgrounds and create some kind of cultural synergy to bring about acceptance and open dialogue. Someday!
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