Late August 2008 I went to a TEDTalks gathering at S2M in Utrecht. The meeting was organized by Jasper van Impelen. I had discovered the TEDTalks a few months before this through a lexicographer named Erin McKean who wrote about TED - and the dress she made for the occassion - on her blog A Dress a Day. I saw the Talk and I was hooked.To this day Erin's TEDTalk is one of my favorites.

I thought it would be nice to connect with other TED fans so I made the trip to Seats2Meet. We were about eight people and spent an enjoyble afternoon watching Sir Ken Robinson with his famous talk Does Education kill Creativity and a few others, which I am ashamed to say, I don't remember. Jaap Spronks was there, Annet Struik and Eric Haas and a few other folks.

In September, going home after a game of Apples to Apples at Tennispark Berg & Dal near my flat in The Hague I asked my pal Ralph Oei, who I knew was also a fan of TED, if he was interested in starting a TED Club. We could meet every month on Sunday afternoon to watch three selected TED videos loosely chosen around a theme and invite a bunch of people to watch them with us and talk about what we saw. Ralph liked the idea, I asked the people at Tennispark Berg & Dal if we could use their space and they said yes.

The rest was easy. Ralph picked the first three videos, wrote an invitation, downloaded the videos and we set up the beamer, the laptop and the screen in the attic at the tennisclub. On person showed up, a fellow Toastmaster with a Ph.D. in Biomedical Science. We watched three TEDTalks related to the Power of Words: Chis Abani - from him I learned the meaning about the word Ubuntu - , Rick Smolan - about a photo reportage he made about a Amerasian girl many years ago and an adoption- and Music - Benjamin Zander about shiny eyes, the power of classical music. We were all moved by the Talks and talked about them for a long time, or so it seemed.

Despite the small audience we tought our afternoon a big succes.

Or next meeting drew more visitors. It was a snowy Sunday in November. We met at the Gallery, a different space filled with art work and had a nice view. It was very cold. I had to run home to fetch ponchos and blankets. Luckily the onion soup and bitterballen kept us warm and the Talks and conversation were excellent.


And so for almost a year we met once a month on the second Sunday of the month until Berg & Dal kicked us out of the Gallery. We me at my house once or twice and in July 2009 we moved our TEDxTheHague Salon to Berg Kleijn Communicatie, an advertising communications agency in The Hague. I had worked there briefly 10 years ago but kept in touch with one of the owners. He liked the idea of a monthly salon and TEDxTheHague started meeting there every second Friday of the month. Ralph and I took turns choosing the videos and the themes. We started experimenting with live talks. I presented my talk The Power of Sound; Richard Wagner in Seven Minutes, Rachelle Eerhart talked to us about No Impact Week last November. Other regulars stepped up to the plate. Attendance has been growing steadily ever since; a diverse, international group of people sometimes coming from far beyond The Hague.

The last couple of meetings have been at full capacity with Henry Soenarko, one of our Berg Kleijn hosts, along with Peter van den Berg, hauling chairs from other offices.It has become a tradition that guests bring their favorite snacks to share. We are very curious to see how this will play with a gathering of 150 - 200 people on July 13th.


Meanwhile, at the beginning of 2009 at the TED headquarters in NYC curator Chris Anderson had come up with the TEDx concept. TEDx, independently organized TED events, and suddenly things got a lot more 'official. We needed a logo with an x, and we had to deal with administrative issues. But TEDx took off and how. Recently the 2000th TEDx event took place. The TEDx development is not going to stop any time soon.TEDx has become a global phenomenon. The TEDx events also brings new discoveries and new speakers to the attention of the TED headquarters and so the ideas keep on spreading.

As 'veteran' TED organizers we were given the license for TEDxTheHague without any problems. Jim Stolze, another Dutch TED fan, wanted to meet with us before he started organizing his big TEDxAmsterdam event in November 2009. I think he was pretty keen on having the TEDx scoop in The Netherlands but, truth be told, thàt honor belongs to Jasper van Impelen.

A few months ago we were given the opportunity to simulcast the TEDTalks from TEDGlobal2011 from Edinburgh.We thought about it and we thought: Why Not? Lets do it! We decided on a semi large event, no more than 150 guests, 200 max, including volunteers, caterers, SPEAKERS and sponsors. If all went well we could consider a large TEDxTheHague event later on.

This was a great opportunity to invite local speakers. Igluu was happy to make their new larger spaces available. Filmer Edo van Santen immediately said YES when I called him with the idea. The speakers all said yes, except one. Here we are with a program of seven local speakers and 16 speakers who will come to us all the way from Edinburgh on the screen on July 13th.

Kathy Voyles, a dynamic lady from New Zealand, who lives in The Hague and has a passion for food and cooking, is our head of the catering team besides being one of the speakers. I am impressed with the number of people she has been able to mobilize in a very short time.

Wine has been ordered and the bill will be paid by DPI.nl, an amazing animation house in Scheveningen. Bagels & Beans hopped on and we hope sponsors for printing, banners, beer and coffee will present themselves in the next two weeks. We figure we need a modest budget of around €1000 to cover all the bases. The event itself will be free for the guests, the speakers, the space, the video, everything is given freely in the spirit of ideas worth sharing.

Requests for invitations are coming in at a steady clip and I know we will have a wonderful party on July 13th, a party with substance, style, good food and music!



Be part of it, request your invite and tell your friends! http://ymlp.com/xgewwbbbgmguy

And, by all means, if you want to contribute by becoming a sponsor, get in touch with us. tedxthehague@gmail.com or 0642905484. We will send you a presentation outlining how your company can benefit from being associated with TEDxTheHagueLIVE.Or see it here.