Blog TEDGlobal
By Sam Martin - July 13, 2010
Barrington Estate farmer Adrian Dolby
After the lurching football experience and the near-riots in Piccadilly Circus on Sunday night, I took the early train to Oxford to register for the conference, get my goodie bag, and get on a bus to Barrington Estates, one of England’s largest organic farms, with a group of about ten other TEDsters. There the wood pigeons, sky larks, hopping hares, rolling green pastures, and good conversation provided the right contrast to the panic in the streets of London.
Blog TEDGlobal
By Sam Martin - July 12, 2010
2009 TEDGlobal bag headed for TEDGlobal 2010.
For the past few weeks I've been thinking about the theme for the upcoming TEDGlobal conference — to which I'm headed as we speak, on the 5:48 First Great Western to Oxford. That theme is “And Now the Good News,” and I’m eager to hear what the good news is. I can tell you that sitting in coach on an American Airlines transatlantic flight is not good news. But the conference in Oxford won’t be about such trifles (though there has to be a designer attending willing to listen, probably for the umpteenth time, about this crucial and crumby traveling experience). No, this week will be an opportunity to take a step back and look at the world in a different way.
Interestingly, being optimistic, especially lately and especially among intellectuals, would be considered “looking at the world in a different way.” But the problem is that there just doesn’t seem to be much room for it these days (ref. BP oil spill, global financial grumbles, melting ice caps, politics, war, poverty, etcetera, etcetera). And I consider myself an optimist.
