TEDx Philly videos are live: Stanford Thompson, Robert J. Moore, Evan Malone, Zoe Strauss and others

TEDx Philly, the local spinoff of the popular, high-brow presentation event on technology, education and design, has posted online videos of 12 of the 16 Tedx Philly presentations from last month’s event.

Held at the Kimmel Center in Center City, more than 600 attendees crammed the hall to watch those presentations, including the four below:

Of TuneUp Philly, “Stanford Thompson speaks about the importance of after school programs and how music serves as a vehicle for social change. See Stanford’s students come on stage for a string performance that reduces the crowd to tears.”

Of RJ Metrics, “Robert J. Moore will astonish you with how much data is being created. He stresses the importance of organizing and analyzing the insane amount of data we now have.”

Evan Malone of NextFab Studio on “exposing how innovators in STEM are being sent oversees after graduation, Evan Malone offers suggestions and policy reform that can help keep these bright minds in America.”

“Once a year, for the past 10 years, Zoe Strauss turned the space under 95 South into an art gallery. Hear Strauss share inspiring stories of how personal history and community history shape her art.”

Watch the rest of the videos here.

Did one of the presentations stand out to you as being particularly good, informative or inspiring?

TEDxPhilly continues tech’s momentum in the city

The TEDxPhilly stage at the Kimmel Center's Perelman Theater

There was barely a dry eye in the house.

On a stage that has played host to world-renowned musicians, the cause was a nursery rhyme that elicited a passionate and tearful standing ovation at TEDxPhilly.

The moment came courtesy of Curtis graduate Standford Thompson, founder of Tune Up Philly, a program that offers classical music lessons to Philadelphia high school students. Leading his talk with a short video showing eager but frustrated students struggling to play a scale, Thompson figured the best way to show his student’s progress from September was to let them play.

One rendition of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star later, 600 TEDx attendees — including host Chris Bartlett — were brought to their feet. After the song Bartlett took the stage and stood in silence.

“I’m going to let that moment sit,” he said holding back tears. “I’m going to allow myself to be moved.”

A Philly first

Organized by Roz Duffy and an army of volunteers after a year of planning, TEDx is the licensed version of the popular TED conference that takes place yearly in California. To help spread TED, independent organizers lead smaller TEDx events all around the country throughout the year. Yesterday, however, was Philly’s first.

The all-day event’s theme was “Right Here and Right Now” leading to a diverse group of Philadelphians taking the stage at the Kimmel Center. The speakers each had 18 minutes to speak about their ideas which ranged from changing lives with food to the importance of the two-by-four. The talks were split into four sessions with a short break in between each and the audience was not allowed to take notes on a laptop or cell phone.

“We’re going by Amish rules today,” said Bartlett.

Change

“It doesn’t have to be like this,” said Science Leadership Academy principal Chris Lehmann during his talk. Though he was speaking about the education system he could have been referring to the entire city. From changing the way we get our food to the way we think about corporate law, the speakers all advocated for change.

After the jump, we recap the topic of each talk.

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