The TEDx Phenomenon

Even though we live in an era where technology offers us any kind of information we want with the cost of just one single mouse click, people seem to lack knowledge more than they did a couple of decades ago. Why is this happening?

We can blame it on the fact that younger generations keep away from libraries and books. We can also blame it on the media, always on the run for the sensational, and, of course, there is the internet… the place where freedom shakes hands with snooping eyes. But really, why are there signals in the media about the fact that some youngsters grow up in the darkness of ignorance? As the Daily Telegraph claims it in a trending article, children grow up with a lack of role models.

According to Helen Wright, the president of the Girls’ Schools Association, children “during this journey through their lives, from being a baby to being an adult, need to develop more of a perspective on life and they gain that from trusted adults; be they school teachers, be they family members, be they people you work with in the community. That’s our socialization, that’s how we move through from childhood to adulthood and start to understand the world.”

The lack of role models in our society is something that people have looked upon from the last decades of the previous century and this is why in 1984, Richard Saul Wurman set the cornerstone for what would become a leading conference phenomenon that influences and inspires millions of people worldwide: the TED talks.

TEDx

Originally, TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) was an event that merged three different fields. In the first TED event, people witnessed a demo version of the compact disk, the e-book and also a couple of interesting 3D graphical revolutions presented by Lucasfilm. During this first event, mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot showed the attendees how to map coastlines by using fractal geometry. Though the themes presented at the first TED were very interesting, the event was not a financial success. It took 6 years for Wurman and his partner Harry Marks to do the event again. Now, however, times have changed.

In 1990, the TED conference held in California was a major success and it became an annual event. The number of attendees grew and although it was an invitation-only event, more and more people became interested in the themes that were being discussed at the TED talks.

A new era for the TED talks began in 2000, when Wurman decided it was time to find a successor for his project and approached new-media entrepreneur Chris Anderson. Anderson’s NGO Sapling Foundation acquired TED for £4m and soon TED became a world-wide phenomenon. Its purpose now goes beyond Technology, Entertainment and Design. It soon became a platform for “ideas worth spreading” meant to make the world a “smarter and better place”.

There have been numerous speakers at the conferences, some of them being world-famous personalities such as Bill Gates, Bono, Jamie Oliver, Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, Stephen Hawking, Julian Assange and many more. All the speakers are chosen by Anderson personally, as he also hosts the conferences and decides what talks go online.

David Binder on the Arts Festival Revolution

During the years of him being the TED curator, Anderson expanded the conference so that it covered all topics possible, including science, business and personal development. He built a Fellows program that now has over than 300 alumni and established the TED Prize which is being awarded to outstanding people that have “one wish to change the world”. In just a decade, TED went on a journey to become more than a conference. It is now a worldwide stage for thinkers and doers from many areas who share their ideas and make people dare for more.

In 2009 Anderson made TED a global brand. Now quite the star on the internet and throughout the world, Anderson took the motto “ideas worth spreading” to a whole new level. He introduced the TEDx initiative which offered TED licenses to organizers from all over the world so they can create their own TED events. Until now, there have been more than 8,000 events all over the world, generating an archive of over than 60,000 TEDx talks available on the internet.

In 2016, Oveit became a partner of TEDx Bucharest. A locally organized event, licensed by TED, TEDx Bucharest began its activities in 2009, aiming to make a positive impact on the development of the local and national community of thinkers and doers. The latest event, Women of Now, held on the 16th of June 2016, was a well received as it presented the local community a conference focused on the women of today: women who are mothers and daughters, best friends and role models but also business partners, top leaders, innovators and achievers.

The TED phenomenon is growing and necessary. In a world where the darkness of ignorance seems to be growing, every TED speaker is a beacon of light, a living proof that the future generations will not only have plenty of role models but eventually will grow up into becoming role models themselves.

Top 5 Summer Festivals for Indie Music Lovers

No plans for this summer yet? Here are some cool festivals to attend the following months, all over Europe. If you are a music fan, and your favorite indie band is playing at a festival, there is no better way to see them live! Plus, it is a really good way to discover new artists that you might like: a lot of emergent artists and bands play for their first time on minor stages at festivals.

Open’er Festival, June 29-July 2, Gdynia (Poland)

opener-festival

Source

A music festival which takes place on the North coast of Poland, the event was given the Best Major Festival prize at the European Festival Awards ceremony in 2009 and 2010. This year’s lineup include popular local and international artists, such as Sonar and Wiz Kalifa.

Mainsquare Festival, July 1-3, Arras (France)

mainsquare

Source

Happening in the stunning Citadelle Vauban, this event boasts an impressive alumni list like Coldplay, Depeche Mode, Placebo, Muse and Metallica. This summer, you can listen to Iggy Pop and Ellie Goulding. All you have to do if you get there is have fun and not worry about having to carry cash with you: at Main Square Festival, you can buy stuff “Cashless” – a contactless payment system, thanks to a microchip in your bracelet, which will make your life easier when shopping during the festival (drinks, meals, merchandising, etc.).

Indietracks, July 29- 31, Derbyshire (UK)

indietracks

Indietracks is a summer music festival which combines steam trains and indiepop music. Quite smart, right? Visitors are free to enjoy steam train rides, railway attractions and museums, discos, art and craft workshops. Each year around 50 new and established indie pop artists perform across a range of stages at the festival. However, if you can’t make it for the festival, every year the organizers release a download compilation album featuring bands playing at the festival. In 2016, Saint Etienne, The Aislers Set, The Spook School, Emma Pollock, Darren Hayman and the Secondary Modern, Comet Gain will be performing at Indietracks.

Spellground Festival, August 12-14, Capidava (Romania)

spellground

Source

A music and arts festival that takes place this summer, that will host dozens of famous singers and bands, such as The Kooks, Amber Run, Soul Clap of Noir. The festival is located on the way to the Romanian seaside, next to the Capidava Citadel, on the Danube shore, at a distance of 160 km of Bucharest or 65 kilometers of Constanta. The organizers also provide camping accommodation for those who want to live a full festival experience. Long story short, this is what you get for less than 50 euros: 72 hours of live music, 3 concert stages, art performances and various workshops.

Summer Well Festival, August 13-14, Stirbey Domain, Buftea (Romania)

summerwell

Source

This year, Summer Well marks its sixth edition. If you choose to attend the event, you will get the chance to listen to The Chemical Brothers, Hurts, Years & Years, The Neighborhood, Crystal Fighters, Milky Chance, BØRNS, Blossoms, Sundara Karma and HÆLOS. There is no accommodation provided, but there is that a dedicated bus available for the festival, linking Piata Victoriei in Bucharest to Domeniul Stirbey in Buftea, so you can get to the festival and back home, free of charge.

Did you make up your mind? Then just pick your favorite event, pack and go! Enjoy your summer!

How to increase traffic to your museum or gallery?

museum

The Vatican Museum. Source.

Today, the world is changing faster than ever. Information is now instantly available to everyone online, so modern museums need to sell a reason for people to pay to view the real thing. Therefore, in order to respond to the social changes and adapt to your visitors’ expectations, you must innovate, and technology might just be the right choice.

Create your own museum app

More and more museums in the world are making the experience interactive, educational, and engaging for their visitors. Your own museum app can provide cellphone tours, audio guides, interactive movies or games and even augmented reality.

Optical recognition and enhanced reality (using QR codes and such) is a great way to improve the experience of your visitors, as you will be able to enhance what they are seeing through their mobile device. People can scan an object of interest with their camera, and that gesture triggers delivery of relevant content, in order to better understand the exhibits. With the help of your e-ticket and NFC technology, visitors can simply touch their phones on the museum devices and benefit from the latest trends in augmented reality. All the devices from the museum and gallery can connect to Oveit, hence the only thing that visitors must do is purchase an online ticket and come with it on the smartphone. From there, they can relax and enjoy the sights.

Sell online tickets and subscriptions

Purchasing e-tickets will give your customers a lot of benefits: they decrease cost and are instantly delivered (no transportation needed), they are a great time saver, more accessible, safer (these won’t get stolen or lost), and last but not least, they are a ‘green’ alternative.

Apart from these facts, there are also great advantages for you when it comes to selling tickets or subscriptions online. For example, you are able to collect essential customer data that can be used to better plan marketing campaigns for future exhibits or events. With Oveit’s embed system, you can issue and check electronic tickets directly on your website so that you can make sure that customers will never be forced to a third party website that sells tickets. Moreover – there is no setup fee and implementation is instant, by just copy-ing and pasting an embed code.

Provide multiple access

If you have various galleries, collections or exhibits going on in your museum, you can sell multiple access tickets. Oveit’s event registration software can help you create as many different types of tickets as you need. You can also set prices, ticket quantity limits, and much more. Therefore, visitors will be able to benefit from simpler access, using only their smartphone. With the multiple access option, visitors will be able to configure their access ticket any way they want, choosing whatever exhibition they want. Just imagine that you can buy a ticket in less than 2 minutes and with that same ticket you can do everything you want in the museum. So, pay once, visit more.

Host events

Events enable you to promote your activities to a very select group of people and can be a fun and interactive way to engage with potential and existing visitors. Make visitors feel like a part of the museum family, by inviting them to special ‘member’ events. Let them share their experience with the museum and their future expectations. Also, events can be a great way to thank existing customers for their support and interest.

In order to host a successful event, you need to have an easy registration system in place. In a couple of minutes, Oveit can help you design and create personalized badges for all your attendees, create complex seating designs (in case your museum hosts a conference) and sell access to your planned event.