TEDLuck: A Recipe for Geekin' Out

Last week my housemates and I hosted our second "TEDLuck" event, which is designed around the idea of bringing together a diverse group of people to share in good food and wine while geeking out over a handful of TED talks. Our theme for the night was "Stories", so we watched Billy Collins' illustrated poems in "Everyday Moments Caught in Time" and Sarah Kay's spoken word "If I Should Have a Daughter" while enjoying a hearty potluck dinner of pasta, salads, butternut squash, and wine. From the perspective of creativity theory, the event works well because it brings together a diverse set of viewpoints, adds just a small dose of structure, and then allows the discussion to flow as it will. The group is thus on a collaborative mission (see last post) to learn and explore interesting ideas. From the perspective of the people involved, the event works well just because the food is delicious and it's a fun way to hang out with people after a long day. Here's the recipe, if you want to organize one yourself:

1. Select a theme. So far we've done "technology" and "stories".
2. Get your group. We had 7 for the first and 10 for the second, but I think smaller groups would work well too.
3. Select three TED talks or other similar videos roughly related to your theme. You can browse all of the talks at TED.com, and there's no shortage of bloggers who have sorted and tagged their favorites as well.
4. Have everybody bring over a dish, give everyone a glass of wine, and sit down to enjoy some talks! We've tried discussing each talk individually as well as waiting until the end; the best approach seems to be to let the discussion flow organically.

Both TEDLucks that we've held held have been fantastic, fun, and enlightening evenings. If you host your own and have suggestions or improvements, let me know! We'll probably run another within the next couple of weeks on the topic of community or citizenship; themes that resonate with personal experience and don't presuppose a correct answer (e.g., "sustainability") seem to be the most exciting.

Tedluck2