This past weekend was TEDxWarwick 2010. TED, being the nonprofit organisation devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading and x, meaning an independently organised event inspired by TED. These events are being held around the world as people get together to share ideas.

Despite not having morning event tickets, we got there early. The University of Warwick students were excellent hosts and snuck us into the last half of the session, just in time to catch Dr. Rachel Armstrong present the idea of living buildings and using protocells to help prop up Venice. Up next was a video presentation from Hervé This, father of molecular gastronomy, a hot trend in cuisine. TEDxWarwick so far was truly an interdisciplinary event.

The topic I found most interesting was presented by Alex Wright, author of Glut: Mastering Information Through the Ages. He presented over Skype from his apartment in Brooklyn, NY and began with an observation on how we take technologies or systems developed for other reasons to do more interesting things with. Alex wouldn’t have known it, but just a few speakers prior to him Simon Berry from ColaLife had a great example. He’s trying to use Coca Cola’s existing distribution network to send life saving medication to hard to reach communities.

My understanding of Alex’s idea is that what we do with cool new technologies are rooted in our primal instincts. He discussed how we went from an oral culture to a literate one, but the oral elements never really went away. With the recent rise of social media, more of our oral culture is beginning to make a comeback in the way we communicate and share stories.

I would have loved to of heard more, but because Sir Roger Penrose’s presentation ran a little long and we still needed to fit in Noam Chomsky they had to cut Alex off. I guess I’ll have to grab his book.

The day was filled with brilliant, inspiring and interesting ideas. I was busy scrawling down notes, trying to capture all the excitement, that I am now having trouble deciphering. There are TEDx events happening across the UK and around the world. Check one out. There’s no doubt you’ll learn something.