thinking: relating- celebrating :-)

At last years TEDxAkl event one of the best presentations was by Scott Gilmour of “ihaveadream”

I’ve had the pleasure of hanging out with Scott before and so when the programme opened at Wesley I took my daughter along for a look. She goes to a decile 10 school not that far away from Wesley but a world away in terms of opportunity and outcomes.

That is – unless some of us help out to change the odds. I have a dream aims to inspire the whole school and related community by helping a whole class.

“Each local “I Have a Dream”® project adopts one entire year level from the founding Primary School. They work with this group of children (“the Dreamers”) and their families year-round from their primary school years through university. Each project has its own unique Project Sponsor(s), its own full time Project Co-ordinator, and its own group of dedicated and committed volunteers.”

“In 2003, the first “I Have a Dream”® project outside of the USA started up at Wesley Primary School in Mt Roskill, a suburb of Auckland, New Zealand.”

Scott presented at #tedxakl ’09 last year – here is the video of that presentation.

I’m helping out on TEDxAkl “ideas worth spreading” 2010 this year. You can get your TEDxAkl tickets over here. No essay required this year.

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Here are some very timely work / life balance insights for those of us over 30 any age – from Nigel Marsh.

Meaningful engagement takes effort and a level of conscious attention that we all need to work at. I love being a Dad but juggling a business and a life takes a real mind shift.

There are more than a few laughs here – life is not a destination it is a journey and we need to be present and engaged now.

“Nigel Marsh is the bestselling author of “Fat, Forty and Fired” and “Overworked and Underlaid” and the Regional Group CEO of Young and Rubicam Brands for Australia & New Zealand. Finding the balance between work and life is an ongoing battle.”

I’m really looking forward to TEDxAuckland on Sunday 26th September  2010. I will be helping to get the word out and hoping to see you all there if you are in Auckland that weekend.

This year you can get tickets from Ticketek there is no registration process. If you were there last year TEDx Auckland 2009 media is here.

In the meantime enjoy Nigel’s talk.

I really enjoyed Brett Solomon’s talk at TEDx Sydney 2010. Brett  is the co-founder and Executive Director of Accessnow.org. He takes us on an internet freedom tour. A few surprises here.

I’m wondering if the debate on internet filtering in Australia  had any effect on the election there. What do you all think? If Labour have lost then Senator Conroy is gone but the debate may not be over.

That election took place yesterday but this morning – still to close to call although it looks like Labour has lost and while Seventy six seats are required for victory in the 150 seat Parliament that just may be a too hard.

“Brett Solomon is co-founder and Executive Director of Accessnow.org – a new global movement for digital freedom. Born out of the aftermath of the 2009 Iranian election, Access uses cutting edge technologies to help people living behind the firewall, provides thought leadership on the new frontier of digital rights, and is building a mass global citizens’ movement which advocates for internet freedom.

Brett was Campaign Director at Avaaz.org, a global political web force which has rapidly grown into the largest online activist community in the world at 3.6 million subscribers in all 193 countries. Brett was the first Executive Director of GetUp!, an Australian political organisation of over 300,000 people, worked as Campaign Coordinator at Amnesty and founded Oxfam’s International Youth Parliament.”

from TEDx Sydney speakers

Update: It looks like Tony Abbott might be the new Aussie PM.

If Labour has had a  -5.5% swing against them then they should step aside but we won’t know for a few days or weeks.  The early results may be incorrect but it is not looking good for Labour. What will the Greens do ?

Dave McClure over at 500hats is always a good read. His posts on reinventing venture capital there and at various conferences make a great deal of sense.

I really liked MoneyBall for Startups a recent very long essay – which is an essential read if the future of business is your thing.

“the primary issue is that investors of all shapes and sizes have become incredibly lazy and complacent over the past two decades, measured by both activity and by IRR.  Meanwhile, the consumer internet has brought a tsunami of technological & behavioral change which has resulted in stunning reductions in time & cost needed to distribute products and services to the over 2-3B connected people on the planet.”

On a recent visit to Silicon Valley and San Francisco I was personally struck by the gap between the incredible resources on offer and the sorts of projects that I saw pitched.

In my personal view I know NZ and Australian businesses who could do a whole lot better than what I saw at Web 2.0 and generally around. On the other hand I did meet some extremely smart people who are doing very well and in time will write about them as well.

There are better ways to measure all of this and I did see an applied math project that got me very excited.

Of course- it is not quite as simple as that but Dave McClure is the go to guy on these and related topics.

If you have less time and you want to try the more gentle option the slideshow below may suit.

If you enjoy reading Dave McClure you should check out David Cowan on Startups