At Friday’s TEDxOU event in the Oklahoma Memorial Union’s Meacham Auditorium, 16 speakers from diverse backgrounds took the stage to encourage attendees to make a positive change in the world around them.

The event began at 9:30 am with an address from event organizer Adam Croom, who said TEDx events are intended to foster creative thinking and collaboration between professionals and free thinkers from a wide range of disciplines.

“This event is not just about the speakers … it’s also about [the audience],” Croom said. “Take time between sessions to interact with one another.”

Before leaving the stage, Croom introduced OU Vice President for Strategic Planning and Economic Development Daniel Pullin, who said he hoped Friday’s TEDx event was not an isolated event.

“Hopefully this will be seen as the first of many future events like this,” Pullin said.

After Pullin’s speech, the first two of 16 speakers began their presentation.

Twin brothers Buck and Clint Vrazel served as the event’s masters of ceremony in addition to detailing the thought process that helps them perform improvisational rap verses as part of their stage act Twinprov.

Quotations:

“Don’t worry about failure, because if you set you commit, you can produce 99 successes to every one failure.” –Buck Vrazel

“We try to have form without failure, creation without mistakes.” – Clint Vrazel

OU professor Jeremy Short followed the Vrazels by describing the thought process that led him to produce graphic textbooks implemented as part of his graphic approach to higher education.

Quotations:

“Sadly, traditional textbooks aren’t connecting with today’s students.”

“To engage a new generation we have to implement new methods.”

“Reading graphic novels is the only form of literacy that is actually increasing in the United States.”

Ken Parker brought the event’s first session to a close by detailing the ways in which technology and community can be combined to increase educational effectiveness. As the co-founder of RiskMetrics Group and CEO of NextThought, Parker does not come from a traditional educational background, but he called the field his passion.

Quotations:

“Many of our problems in the current educational climate result from a failure to leverage technology as an aspect of education.”

“Technology can be used to combine communication and education in ways we couldn’t have foreseen even a few years ago.”

OU associate honors and women’s studies professor Julia Ehrhardt began the event’s second session by imparting her belief in the importance of and cooking from scratch and knowing where, how and by whom food is produced.

Quotations:

“All too often we settle for eating ‘edible food-like substances. Learn to cook from scratch.”

“Farming is hard work and a hard living, but it’s the hard work that keeps us living.”

Have you ever had a conversation with the people who produce the food you eat? If you haven’t, you should.”

OU Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art director Ghislain d’Humieres took the stage next and stressed the importance of the oral transmission of knowledge between generations. He detailed his hope for a “speed dating of knowledge” scenario where people from the millennial generation and their elders could come together to help answer the world’s most pressing questions.

Quotations:

“The influence of elderly people in my life made me who I am today.”

“My life has been surrounded by older people sharing their stories.”

“We are losing the transmission of knowledge through the voice from older to younger people.”

“The conflicts in history are due to misunderstanding … to make decisions you must first have wisdom.”

Singer-songwriter Brine Webb followed d’Humieres and performed two original songs in addition to describing his thought process while composing music.

Quotation:

“I don’t think there’s a good answer to why I write songs. I write because I have a story, and sometimes it’s a story about me to another person, sometimes it’s a story about another person to another person and sometimes it’s a story about me to me. Those are always the best ones.”

PepsiCo Senior Vice President Jeffrey Swearingen brought the event’s second session to a close by imploring attendees to find the aspects of day-to-day life that bring them happiness. Swearingen pointed to fishing with his sons as a multi-faceted experience involving connection, wisdom, curiosity, strategy, humility, achievement and kindness that brings him true happiness.

Quotations:


“There is a difference between pleasure and happiness. Vacations give you pleasure, but I’m talking about something deeper than that.”

“When it comes to our problems we’re often very specific, but when it comes to our dreams we’re very vague.”

“Take the time to figure out your ‘True North,” that thing that drives you that you can’t compromise.”

Hartel Dance Group founder Austin Hartel began the event’s third session with a demonstration featuring his students and description of what drives him to use dance as a medium that helps artists collaborate.

Quotations:

“I dance because I’m not good at talking.”

“Dance is one of the true artforms that communicates mind over matter.”

“Dance is key to communicating without language.”

OU Health Sciences Center cell biology assistant professor Courtney Griffin used her time on stage to educate TEDxOU attendees about the significance of epigenetics. Her speech centered upon the fact that decisions made by audience members today could influence future generations.

Quotations:

“Epigenetics are a set of instructions which help instruct cells how to understand genes.”

“Epigenetic marks are profoundly influential in our biology.”

“Studies in humans show mothers who eat poorly are at greater risk of giving birth to kids with obesity and cardiovascular disease. Mothers who smoke are at greater risk of giving birth to children with asthma, and this is due to epigenetic influence.”

“There are things we can do to positively influence our epigenome, but we have to take steps to eat and live more healthily.”

OU letters and history professor Kyle Harper followed Griffin and urged attendees to look at the societal norms and customs around them through a broad historical context. To illustrate his point, he tracked the influence of monogamy and wine on current U.S. culture by tracing their influence to Roman society.

Quotations:

“We have a deeply ingrained belief that our society is natural and normal, but our understanding of normal is influenced … by the time we live in. To understand time we need to think in terms of enormous time scales.”

“We still talk in terms of prehistory. I’m here to tell you there is no such thing as prehistory.”

Jason Roberts brought the third session to a close and received the event’s only standing ovation with his description of the formation of betterblock.org and his approach to a sort of guerilla-style neighborhood improvement in his hometown of Oak Cliff, Texas.

Quotations:

“My wife and I went to Europe about 10 years ago … I came back to Dallas and I wondered, ‘What is our legacy?’”

“If somebody just takes initiative to change a perception it makes a huge difference.”

“I did not think of myself as the leader of a bicycle group, but I became one. If you’re passionate, you can become a leader.”

“What we had to overcome is something that happened to us, and it happens all over. We were hamstrung by rules put into place years ago that nobody even knows why we’re following them.”

LifeChurch.tv pastor and innovation leader Bobby Gruenewald began the TEDxOU event’s fourth and final session by asking event attendees to use the technology at their disposal to positively impact the people and places around them.

Quotations:

“There’s over 7 billion people alive today, and at that same time we have a network of technology unlike anything in history.”

“The technology we have today is incredible … The processing power of a single iPhone … is greater than what it took to get men to the moon and back.”

“Technology is amoral, but it can be used in very positive ways both positively and negatively.”

“The same technology that can be used to elect a president can be used to topple a government.”

“We’re using in technology in interesting but not significant ways, but we can change that.”

Maisha International Orphanage founder Beatrice Williamson was the event’s penultimate speaker, and she used her time on stage to stress the importance of education and impart to attendees that one person is capable of making a lasting influence on the world. Maisha International Orphanage in Kenya is an organization that today educates more than 166 students and regularly provides food to more than 460 children, Williamson said.

Quotations:

“Always keep in mind the power of education and that you can do something to make a change.”

“Education was a dream for me, and I always desired to be in class.”

“I received my education because somebody decided to make a difference.”

“If you’ve ever had an idea of what you wanted to do, but didn’t know how to start, my message is just do it.”

“Because somebody decided to make a difference in my life I decided to pay it forward.”

Reed Timmer, subject of the Discovery Channel television show “Stormchasers” and tornadovideos.net contributor, brought the event to a close with his talk on the science of extreme stormchasing. Timmer’s work is intended to provide a scientific on the horizontal and vertical atmospheric forces at work in the heart of tornadoes, he said. He hopes his work will someday result in better tornado safety and preparedness in the country’s most at risk areas, he said.

Quotations:

“We drive into tornadoes and collect data that others can’t.”

“It’s incredible that the air we’re breathing right now can be organized into something as powerful and destructive as (a tornado).”

“Not only are we trying to understand a tornado’s horizontal rotation, but the equally destructive vertical winds.”

“A collaborative effort is necessary in our science.”