Thanks again to everyone who attended or supported this year’s event.

Thanks to everyone who attended the first ever TEDxGlasgow event on Sunday. The title of this post is based on a quote from Heather Boyd on Twitter  and is just one of the positive things people have said about the day – you can see more comments and feedback on Twitter (links to all #TEDxGlasgow mentions) and Facebook.

Here is a thoughtful review of the day from Fraser Smith using Storify to great effect.

Speaker Joe Tree has also posted about the day, including the above photo, on his blipfoto.com journal and has inspired at least one other attendee to do the same, and Geek Speak are also doing a very thorough review, taking each session in turn.

We have also added some photos over at Flickr and we will be posting the videos online within a month of the event.

If you have done a review of the event please post in the comments or on our Facebook page.

Also let us know in the comments what your highlights of the day or or let us know if you have any suggestions for how we could run an even better event in 2013.

To be kept informed of when the videos for this year are online and for any updates on the next TEDxGlasgow event in 2013, please subscribe to the newsletter.

Thanks again from all of the TEDxGlasgow team!

To win, just sign up to the newsletter below – you will also receive occasional updates about TEDxGlasgow, including when new videos are available to watch and any future events.

The winners will be picked at random and will be informed on Saturday 3rd March at 10am via email.

Photo: Tickets by Guillem Ferran (Creative Commons)

On Hope and Hopelessness.

Our health – both mental and physical – is a great determinant on how we live and die. Hope and hopelessness, rather than opposites, are companions in this journey. The opposite of hope turns out to be something quite corrosive, but something that we are all equipped to rise above.

More About Murray…

In a career lasting forty years, Murray Watts has written many plays for theatre and radio, and numerous screenplays for TV and film. His work as a playwright, screenwriter and children’s writer has won awards nationally and internationally. His stage plays have appeared on the London Fringe and Trafalgar Studios in the West End and major theatres throughout the UK, culminating in a season of his plays at The King’s Head Theatre, London, in January 2012.

His most recent play The Kiss was premiered at the Oran Mor Theatre in Glasgow in November 2011. Screenplays include: The Dream starring Jeremy Irons and The Miracle Maker which was released in Britain and Europe at the Millennium and won the MovieGuide Epiphany Prize as the most inspirational film on US TV in 2001.

In the early 1990s, Murray Watts was the co-author of the BBC book, ‘Relax: Dealing with Stress,’ and wrote and co-presented the network TV series of the same name with organisational psychologist Professor Cary L Cooper. In the 1997 extended edition of the book, ‘Stop The World’, he developed new material on the subject of hope and human survival. In the same year, he became the director of The Wayfarer Trust, based at Freswick Castle in Caithness, a charity which he founded to provide encouragement, inspiration and hope in the world of the arts and media.

Murray’s website: www.murraywatts.co.uk

Is Social Business the Evolution of Capitalism?

No economic system has ever lifted as many people out of poverty than capitalism. However it relies purely on the profit motive and as such reduces the individual to a one-dimensional being. Humans are multi-faceted; selfless as well as selfish. Social business harnesses the dynamism and creative power of capitalism but puts the enhancement of humanity at its heart. Does it represent the Evolution of Capitalism?

More About Mick Jackson…

Mick Jackson is a serial entrepreneur, venture philanthropist, author, Ex Chart topping rock singer and international business speaker. He is also the founder of WildHearts, a charity committed to launching companies that fight poverty. Its first company WildHearts Office Supplies gives companies the ability to fund micro-finance globally simply through their office supply purchases. Its second, WildHearts Events has created iconic concepts such as the WolfTrek, WeeWalks and Micro-Tyco. As a result of its success WildHearts now funds loans for the poor in 20 countries across five continents transforming 100,000 lives each year. In 2008 Mick was voted Entrepreneur of the Year and Top Scot by the Scottish public, an honour he shares with JK Rowling and Olympic cyclist Chris Hoy.

Website: http://www.wildheartsinaction.org

Sax Ecosse will be performing Tuning In’ by Jonathon Dove, a musical portrait of a conversation.

More About Sax Ecosse…

Soprano saxophone             Karen Dufour
Alto saxophone                Michelle Melvin
Tenor Saxophone               Gillian Skingley
Baritone saxophone           Lynsey Payne

Sax Ecosse is a young and vibrant saxophone quartet which has enjoyed considerable success as a chamber ensemble throughout the UK and Europe. Previous performances range from Celtic Connections and the Emerging Artist Series at the Usher Hall, Edinburgh, to recitals in Ljubljana, Slovenia and the St Olav’s Festival, Norway.

Sax Ecosse was established in 2004 whilst students at Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. Since graduating the members of Sax Ecosse are pursued further study in America and Europe. Sax Ecosse were recipients of the Enterprise Music Scotland Residency Project 2008/09, and are alumni of the prestigious Live Music Now! scheme founded by Yehedi Menuin.  During their career the quartet has also entertained many dignitaries including President Bill Clinton and HRH prince Philip.

Forthcoming performances include Cottiers Chamber Project (West End Festival), the 2012 World Saxophone Congress in St Andrew’s, and a return to the Usher Hall’s Emerging Artists series in 2013.

Website: http://saxecosse.com

Exploring the Last Lap -Living and Dying

Dorothy will discuss the following:
i. how old people obtain most help from one another through mutuality and reciprocity including a pilot ‘fostering’ scheme to look after older citizens;
ii. how overt and extensive ageism is, with old people colluding in it much in the same way as happened with sexism and racism;
iii. she will highlight the hidden barriers within the personal services and its overly severe ‘risk averse’ culture that may do more harm than good; and how by helping elderly people keep in contact with their social networks can reduce social isolation and depression, a precursor to dementia.
iv. She will discuss how important it is for older people to have a sense of meaning and purpose in their life however small.
v. Finally she will deal with the last taboo, ( how to die a good) death.

More About Dorothy…

At 86 yrs, Dorothy Runnicles is still working hard to improve the society we live in.  Via Age UK, she is involved with the regulator, the Care Quality Commission as an Expert by Experience, in the visiting of Care Homes and more recently as a “User of Care Services”. She is also an advisor on the empowerment group at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and part of their “Change in Action Programme”. She works as an Associate Consultant for the National Development Team for Inclusion and is involved in their fourth project on older people with high support needs In a series of actions to tackle ageism she contributed to a report on “Age Discrimination in Mental Health Services” for the NHS Strategic Health Authority.

As a social worker and community worker in the 1950’s to 1970’s she was involved with homeless families and families in poverty. Some of her work (and voice) was included in the iconic film “Cathy Come Home” which contributed to a critical mass of public opinion leading eventually to changes in legislation regarding the treatment of homeless families. During the 1970’s and 1980’s she worked as an academic.

She learned a great deal about ageing and dementia when she looked after her own mother for 25 years, (75-100yrs), also from friends and from her own experience as an older person now. She believes passionately in lifelong learning about the ageing process and the challenge of ageism in society itself. She campaigns for respect and dignity in the handling of older people. She is currently  the Elected Representative of residents in the Extra Care Housing Retirement Village in which she lives (200+ residents) to assist  in the  development of residents “engagement in governance”  so they have a stronger voice in decision making about policies which affect them.

She benefits from the contact with her 8 grandchildren who keep her in touch with contemporary issues and intergenerational concerns.

 Recent Publications:

“What do you expect at your age…” – A co-production with the NHS Strategic Health Authority East of England (2010). A discussion document for the East of England care and health system on Age Equality;

“Care Homes and Mental Health” Tom Denning, editor. Published by Oxford University Press (2011). Chapter by Dorothy Runnicles on dementia.

 Creating a Collective Human History

Human history is defined largely by the information our ancestors were able to create and store. But our record of the past is skewed by the powerful or privileged few who were capable of documenting the world around them. We are the first generation to record and share the smallest details of everday life on a massive scale, and the first with an opportunity to create a truly collective human history. But to secure our place in tomorrow’s past, we need to think much more carefully about what we’re doing today.

More About Joe…

Joe Tree is founder and CEO of the popular photography site Blipfoto. In 2004 Joe started a daily photo journal, and every day since he’s taken and openly shared a single photograph. In isolation his journal is a unique record of one person’s life, but tens of thousands more have joined in along the way. He’s now at the centre of a unique and rapidly expanding worldwide community of ordinary people who share their lives through photos, one day at a time.

There’s more to life than this .. and how to get it

Rising materialism is eroding both individual and collective well-being. This is the thread that weaves together many of the big issues of our age  –the bonus culture, loss of standards in public life, rising inequality, overuse of resources and rising mental health problems.  But it need not be like this if we wake up and stop buying into these dominant values and assumptions.

More About Carol…

Carol Craig is Chief Executive of the Centre for Confidence and Well-being – a small charitable organisation which she set up in Glasgow in 2005. Carol is author of three books: The Scots’ Crisis of Confidence, Creating Confidence: A Handbook for Professionals Working with Young People, and The Tears that Made the Clyde: Well-being in Glasgow.

Carol has a Ph. D in politics from the University of Edinburgh and worked in the BBC for thirteen years before setting up her own training and development consultancy.

In the first phase of the Centre’s existence the focus was positive psychology and Carol was seen internationally as one of the leading exponents of this new approach. However, in the past few years the Centre has broadened its focus by highlighting other factors which affect well-being (such as contact with the natural world, exercise and inequality). The Centre, under Carol’s leadership is now focusing on materialism.