This document is a program for the TEDxEast event held on May 7, 2010 at City Winery in New York. It introduces the event theme of "Play, Dream, Create" and explores ways to cultivate joy, expand ambitions, and develop new ideas. The day-long event will feature talks from innovators in various fields related to technology, entertainment, and design. Speakers will give 18-minute talks on topics like turning life into a video game, the business of play, mind wandering, sustainable futures, and creating through choice. The program is intended to bring together passionate people to examine connections between art/science and more through world-class ideas.

1. Play,Dream,Create
May7,2010CityWineryNewYork
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2. WelcometoTEDxEast
May 7, 2010
Dear TED enthusiasts:
Welcome to the second TEDxEast! What began as a conversation among friends has grown into a
twice-annual event that seeks to collect and present some of the best thinking the city (and sometimes
beyond) has to offer. The theme “Play, Dream, Create” explores the ways in which New Yorkers can
cultivate a larger sense of joy, expand their ambitions, and develop something altogether new.
The day has been planned, in the TED tradition, with talks that highlight innovation, bold thinking,
and human achievement in Technology, Entertainment, and Design. And true to the format of the TED
experience, TEDxEast presenters will give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes or less. The following
pages will introduce you to these inspiring speakers.
The event will be simulcast to several hundred students in NYC as organized by volunteers at NYU
and Columbia University. We have made these simulcasts free for students, in the spirit of ideas worth
spreading, but have encouraged the students to join our efforts to help support TEDxKibera and donate
what they are able.
Today’s program provides an opportunity to examine the interconnectedness of art and science,
business and philanthropy, social bonds and gaming—and, of course, to bring together a disparate
group of people who are passionate about ideas.
We invite you to set aside your habit of purposeful multitasking, disconnect from cell phones and smart
phones, and dive deep into the world of ideas.
Welcome to TEDxEast,
Julianne Wurm Organizer/Curator
Marisa Farina
Vico Sharabani
Lucy Flores
Tommy McCall
Melek Pulatkonak
Connie Frances Avila
Dr. Rona Frederick
The TEDxEast Advisory Board includes “TEDsters” Jason Johnson, Taylor Milsal, Christine Mason
McCaul, and Sunny Bates
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3. May7,2010CityWineryNewYork
agenda
Check in and lunch
Opening remarks Julianne Wurm
Session 1: PLAY Dennis Crowley Founder, Foursquare
Raymond Gaspard Broadway producer “A Steady Rain”
Blake Frank 8-year old piano prodigy
Sam Lessin Trustee of the Awesome Award and other stuff
John Henry Harris LEGO / The Business of Play
Conversation Break
Session 2: DREAM Malia Mason Mind-wandering expert, professor at CBS
Company XVI Contemporary yet baroque-inspired dance
Helio Mattar A catalyst for corporate social responsibility in Brazil
Ellen Gustafson Co-Founder, FEED
Richard Saul Wurman Writer, questioner and founder of TED
and TEDMED
Conversation Break
Session 3: CREATE Suzanne Vega Musician
Pysops Marie/Marco Designers and founders of PSYOP
Sheena Iyengar Professor at CBS and author of “The Art of Choosing”
Bruce Feiler NY Times best-selling author of “The Council of Dads”
Closing Remarks Julianne Wurm
Wine Reception Hosted by City Winery
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4. speakers
SpeakersatTEDxEast
Dennis Crowley How to Turn Real Life Into a Video Game
Crowley is best known for co-founding Foursquare, a service devised to makes cities
easier to use and more interesting to explore. He’s currently an adjunct professor at NYU’s
Interactive Telecommunications Program. One of the world’s few people to have been
named one of the Top 35 Innovators Under 35 by MIT’s Technology Review magazine
(2005) and have won the “Fast Money” bonus round on the TV game show Family Feud
(2009), Crowley says he wants to continue down the road of encouraging people to do
interesting things.
Raymond L. Gaspard The Power of Serendipity
Active for more than 40 years in the entertainment industry, Gaspard was the founder
of the WestSide Arts Theatre, which he ran for more than a decade. He subsequently
founded the Union Square Theatre; he then served as president of the Frederick Douglass
Creative Arts Center. He left that position to focus on his most recent theatrical offering on
Broadway: the record-breaking production of A Steady Rain, starring Hugh Jackman and
Daniel Craig. He wants to create positive connections between individuals and cultures.
Blake Frank Piano prodigy
An 8-year-old student, who attends school in Manhattan, Frank loves math, science, and
tennis. But the piano is where this self-taught musician works magic.
Sam Lessin The End of Ownership: What we can Learn from How we Play
The founder and CEO of drop.io, a rich media file-sharing company, Lessin also started
the Y+30, a popular monthly discussion group where industry experts lead talks on
what the world might look like in 30 years. He writes extensively about information and
technology, and he’s a micro-trustee of the Awesome Foundation, which has chapters in
four cities (and is expanding). What Lessin wants to create is change.
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5. May7,2010 CityWineryNewYork
John-Henry Harris The Business of Play
Trained as an industrial designer, Harris has always had a keen interest in developing
products and services that tackle social and environmental issues. But a new question
has begun to intrigue him: Why, as adults, don’t we play more? Through his work as a
Creative Designer at Lego, he’s learned that play is an integral part of any design process,
and he wants to convince people to harness the possibilities of play to empower, bond
and inspire employees to work more passionately than ever before. He believes that in the
space where boundaries are flexible and there are no goals play can occur.
Suzanne Vega Musician
In the 25 years since her 1985 debut album, Vega has sold over 1 million albums, been
nominated for seven Grammy Awards, kicked off the main stage at the first Lilith Fair,
served as a judge for the Orange Prize for Fiction, and learned to drive (at age 43). Her
newest album, Close Up: Volume One, Love Songs, is the first in four-part project to
re-record her old songs in stripped-down and intimate form: “It’s the kind of project I hope
will go on for a long period of time. I’ll keep adding things to it…If people wanted to remix
and send me their versions…I kind of see it as a fluid thing. It will keep going forever. Until
I’m not around to run it anymore.”
Malia Mason The Spotlight and the Watchdog: Understanding the Wandering Mind
An assistant professor of management at Columbia Business School, Mason uses brain
imaging and traditional experimental approaches to explore why the mind is driven to
wander despite our heroic attempts to keep it focused on the task at hand. To Mason, our
tendency to daydream reflects an amazing capacity to attend to current responsibilities
while simultaneously unknotting larger problems or planning our next move. This is what
allows us to say that we are not stuck here, that we are not creatures bound only to an
external world, but able to envision a different, future.
Austin McCormick Company XIV
McCormick has been compared to Serge Diaghilev, and The New York Times says “his
inventive works are a brainy, high-entertainment mix of music-hall, cabaret, theater and
dance.” His dance/theatre company, which is based in Brooklyn, works in a Neo-Baroque
style that combines the lushness of ballet’s beginnings with contemporary movement.
For McCormick, the best way to create is through collaboration—with actors, designers,
dancers, and singers developing and deepening each piece.
Play,Dream,Create
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6. Helio Mattar Imagine a Sustainable Future
After 22 years as a corporate executive, followed by a stint in the Brazilian government,
Mattar helped found Akatu Institute for Conscious Consumption, a nonprofit devoted to
awakening the transformative power of individual consumers in the quest for sustainability.
(Akatu, a word in Tupi, the language spoken by Brazilian Indians, means both good seed
and better world.) Mattar, who holds an M.S. and Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from
Stanford University, believes that there’s freedom in needing less. “That’s not just cheap
philosophy,” he says. “The more you need, the more you work, the more stress you have,
and the more you buy.” His goal is to rupture that cycle.
Ellen Gustafson The 30 Project
Working at the U.N.’s World Food Program (WFP), Gustafson knew that 300 million children
around the world were going to bed hungry. So in 2007, she co-founded FEED Projects.
The idea? Design and sell chic, eco-friendly bags at places like Bergdorf Goodman and
Whole Foods and donate profits to the WFP’s school feeding efforts in sub-Saharan Africa
and Southeast Asia. Three years later, the project has raised nearly 6 million dollars and 55
million meals, and is expanding its reach to parts of the U.S. and Haiti.
Richard Saul Wurman A Conversation With RSW
Spurred by the dance between his curiosity and ignorance, Richard Saul Wurman has
sought ways to make the complex clear. He has now written, designed, and published 82
books on topics ranging from football to health care to city guides. Wurman’s latest book
is called 33: Understanding Change & the Change in Understanding. Wurman created
the TED conference in 1984, bringing together many of America’s clearest thinkers in
the fields of technology, entertainment, and design. He also created the eg Conference
and continues to co-chair the annual TEDMED meetings.
Marie Hyon and Marco Spier Life, Work, Love
Hyon and Spier are co-founders and Creative Directors of Psyop, an award-winning
design and animation company. Their work—which includes projects for Converse,
Adidas Olympics, Fox Nascar and partnering on Esquire’s Augmented Reality issue—has
been called jaw-dropping and is in the National Design Triennial of the Cooper-Hewitt and
MoMA’s permanent collection. In a world of message overload, their motto is to persuade,
change, and influence.
SpeakersatTEDxEast
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7. Sheena Iyengar Creating Our Lives Through the Power, Mystery, and Beauty of Choice
“No one asks better questions, or comes up with more intriguing answers,” says Malcolm
Gladwell of Sheena Iyengar, the inaugural S.T. Lee Professor of Business at Columbia
Business School. Iyengar focuses her research primarily on how people make choices,
and her research—which has involved a jam-tasting booth at a fancy California market
and speed-dating sessions—demonstrates (among other things) the hazards of too many
options. She’s learned that to create the life you want, “You have to be choosy about what
you choose.”
Bruce Feiler The Council of Dads: Renewing the Power of Friendship
One of America’s most popular voices on faith, family, and finding meaning in everyday
life, Feiler is the best-selling author of nine books, including Walking the Bible, Abraham
and most recently, The Council of Dads. The last, a selection of the TED Book Club for
May 2010, is a moving account of the year after he was diagnosed with a malignant
tumor. His dream: “To be alive in five years. To visit ten more countries. To walk my girls
down the aisle.”
Rives co-host
Flat pages can’t contain Rives’ storytelling, even when paper is his medium. On stage,
his poems burst in many directions, too, exposing multiple layers and unexpected treats:
childhood memories, grown-up humor, notions of love and lust, of what is lost forever
and of what’s still out there waiting to unfold. He’s also the co-host (with Kelly) of
TEDActive at Palm Springs.
Kelly Stoetzel co-host
As the Content Director at TED, Stoetzel spends most of the year working on the speaker
program. She’s also the producer and co-host (with Rives) of TEDActive, the intimate,
relaxed, participatory, and speculative event that features special workshops, unique
experiences, and a live simulcast of the speakers in Long Beach.
May7,2010 CityWineryNewYork
Play,Dream,Create
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8. thx
ThankyoufromTEDxEast
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