[ Watch a high-quality HD version on Vimeo ]
I was invited to draw TEDxAustin this weekend. I was skeptical about an event that was so secretive about its contents beforehand, but it far exceeded my expectations. It was well-planned, well-executed, and had a stellar lineup of speakers. I bumped into lots of great people and had some good conversations. Kudos to the team, and thanks to my buddy Sunni Brown for the invite!
The theme of the day was “Play Big,” so I decided to do something special: I drew the background stage and the studio in my sketchbook, then drew the speakers on sticky notes. I wasn’t sure what I was going to with all the drawings, and then the idea of making a video popped into my head. The video was shot with my Aiptek HD camcorder and cobbled together in QuickTime Pro on my slow-as-molasses Mac Mini. Watch the results. (Be sure to click HD!)
Favorites? As someone who hates answering the question, “What do you do?,” Steven Tomlinson’s talk about keeping all your interests in play really hit home. I also loved Carrie Contey’s talk on the power of the pause. John Philip Santos had some terrific images in his talk on genealogical genetics. Both the musical acts, Ruby Jane and John Pointer, were really impressive.
If written notes are your thing, John Lebkowsky has some great ones.
Here’s a photo that Shane Guiter took of me during a break (annotations mine):
See scans of all the sticky note drawings after the jump or on Flickr.
I’m finding more artifacts and reports from the event, so I’m going to post them here in the comments.
From The Butler Brothers:
TEDxAustin from The Butler Bros on Vimeo.
A post about photographing the event from Kirk Tuck, who I randomly had lunch with on Saturday. Nice guy.
You are so awesome. What a wonderful expression of the day through your talent. Thank you for taking the time to do this. What is the music that is in the background of your video?
Thanks, Jodi! The music is an old demo of mine from college. I didn’t know what to use, and I didn’t want to rip anybody off, so I mined my archives…
It was nice meeting you at TED, Austin, and I love the drawings!Verya musign rendition of the day :)
Nice! I just sent the Flickr link to your Mark Rolston drawing to the whole frog TX studio, so your viewcount might jump a bit on that one.
@Odile : same here: nice meeting you!
@Rob: thanks, man! :-)
That is FANTASTIC! Wow, what a total treat.
Thanks for making a super special day even more special.
Best to you!
These are really cool. Love the sticky note format!
Thanks y’all!
Cool notes by Cesar Torres:
Hi Austin,
We’d like to feature this timelapse video you made on our TEDx YouTube channel! Could you please email me at cindy@ted.com, I look forward to hearing from you.
best,
Cindy Nawilis
TEDx Team
Cindy – e-mail sent.
Was going back through my stuff and found the sticky note I used to save my drawing spot:
Love your capture. Your stickies will serve as the critical nudges on my memory of the amazing ideas shared that day. Thanks so much.
Bernadette Noll
@Bernadette thanks!!
Cecy Correa (@cecycorrea) caught me in action during John Pointer: