Success at TEDx Event for KNX UK Member
KNX UK board member, Iain Gordon of GES Digital, recently took part in a popular TEDx event at the University of Surrey, which focused on challenging familiar technology and ways of working.
For over 30 years, TED has been a platform for idea sharing based on the technology, entertaining and design fields, allowing short and powerful talks to provoke discussion and progress. TEDxSurrey started in 2013 at the University of Surrey with the aim of being a hub of innovation; a place to share new ideas and solutions with an engaged audience.
The subject for this occasion was Redefining Ordinary, looking at changing paradigms and pushing the boundaries around technologies, working practices and ways of thinking. Over 120 delegates were present at the event which saw a range of talented speakers, including maths professors and astrophysicists presenting their speciality within the confines of the day’s topic.
Iain’s presentation was entitled “The Ordinary at Home” and highlighted the change in technology within his own life; how music was once consumed via vinyl records, tactile and warm, against today’s digital miniaturised and perhaps cold media servings. His talk also explored how the consumption of the moving image has gone from a family event around the TV, to being always on, available, portable and again cold ways of consuming.
Iain examined the similarities within the home. Where houses were once functional and basic, they are now large, spacious and luxurious, but still using technology from the early part of last century to control them. Although the rate of change in technology is now measured in singular years rather than decades, it is always worth remembering that we risk losing our warmth and appreciation of the subtleties of living your life.
Iain commented that “It was a fantastic day and event, interspersed with fabulous conversation and appreciation of the varying presentations on offer. If I was offered another speaking opportunity or tickets to a TED or TEDx event, I would not hesitate in going along to listen to people at the top of their game talking about the subjects they earn a living from.”
