Portuguese Do IT Better

I was fortunate enough to attend a TEDxEdges Conference held in Lisbon on September 18^th.

For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, let me tell you what the TED experience is like from the point of view of a girl who cannot write a line of code to save her life.

It’s a room full of (geeky) people, of which 90% are (geeky) men, all carrying their (geeky) laptops, iPhones and smartphones so they can update their (geeky) Twitter account by the minute. Actually, I took my laptop and iPhone as well, so what does that say about me?… Anyway… Of course there were some wearing suits, but I bet they wished they wore a “Portuguese Do It Better” t-shirt (in fact, one of the speakers did), because TEDx is not about business. Not at all. It’s about inspiration.

“Ideas Worth Spreading” – this is concept behind the entire TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) experience. It’s about sharing a vision, no matter on what subject. You can have a speaker talking about his dream to save Antarctica from Global Warming and the next one is presenting you a machine that turns used frying oil into scented candles. How cool is that?

The Portuguese TEDxEdges has a local, self-organized programme, where x stands for “independently organized TED event”. This time, it was all about boosting Portuguese confidence in what concerns innovation, skills, entrepreneurship and celebrate the worldwide renowned Portuguese “desenrascanço” (or, as one of the speakers put it, “our ability to pull a MacGyver”). Lovely.

The event had some heavyweights among the speakers, one of them being Carlos Zorrinho, lead responsible for the Portuguese Technological Plan, or Miguel Sales Dias from Microsoft. But if I said those star speakers did a better job than the rest I wouldn’t be fair.

If you didn’t have the chance to attend live on Second Life, and because all the presentations will soon be available at the TEDxEDGES website, I strongly recommend viewing some of them. Especially the ones by Tiago Forjaz (“Does Money Bring Happiness?”), who was truly inspirational, and the one by Paulo Glórias (“When Fun Meets Technology: A Creative Market”), where he claims that innovation is not only coming up with something completely new, but also combining different areas of expertise in a totally unexpected fashion. Like Rock and Classical Music – can anyone say Mike Oldfield? Oh, and don’t forget the one by António Murta (“Portugal, Yet Another Silicon Valley Wannabe?”), defending Portugal must stop making excuses not to excel. Part of the employees working at Israel’s top IT companies can be drafted to the army at any time in case of armed conflict. And they prevail as market leaders. No way can Portugal come up with a better excuse than that for not being creative, innovative and exceptional. And having the skilled resources and committed people as we do, it’s absolutely unforgivable.

Did you know President Barack Obama was actually advised to take Portugal as an example on how to change the education system and bring up a truly digital generation? Check it out here: http://www.grownupdigital.com/index.php/2009/06/obama-should-look-to-portugal-on-how-to-fix-schools/

Bet you didn’t know that… So why aren’t we doing better, when it’s obvious that WE CAN?

Hell, watch all presentations! You can email me ranting if you thought it was a waste of energy.

Furthermore, if you find the time, take a look at other matters mentioned during the various talks, being “The Story of Stuff” just an example: http://www.storyofstuff.com/

 

So, in a nutshell, if you’re lucky enough to get an invitation to a TED conference, you will sit in a packed room the entire day watching 20 minute presentations until 7p.m. – and time rushes by. Only when your legs and other parts of your body are getting numb do you check your watch and 8 hours have passed. Time does fly when you’re having so much fun! It is a true privilege to sit amongst so many dreamers, ambitious and enthusiastic people. They’re not (just) technicians; they’re simply committed and stimulating people. And where else would you get funky jazz music during coffee break?

They are planning a new TED event here in Lisbon within the next six months, one year tops. I’ll be there for sure. Because when you leave TED you’re hyped. You feel you can take on the world, your head spinning with ideas.

In the meantime, bring it on – we are ready to own the world of R&D!