Local version of popular TED talks makes Zug debut

Thursday evening in five venues around the world, crowds gathered to hear speakers share “ideas worth spreading”. One of those places was in the Rathaus in Zug.

Zug hosted Switzerland’s second TEDx event, a local offshoot of the highly respected TED platform. Organisers Simon Quick, Jack Vincent and Natalie Albrecht assembled six speakers from various backgrounds to present their ideas in the under 18-minute format required by the TED statutes.

TED is a non-profit organisation that began in 1984 in California as an annual conference for leaders in the fields of technology, entertainment and design (hence the acronym TED) to present 18-minute messages they felt worthy of spreading. All talks are recorded and with the help of the Internet are then shared and spread as friends pass on links to talks they felt are worth watching. Due to the short format, many fans tune into TED whenever they have a few spare minutes and can use some inspiration.

But the success of the talks, for which tickets are limited and often sold out in advance, has resulted in several international off-shoots such as TEDGlobal based in Oxford, UK, TEDIndia and TEDx, the latter of which allows anyone to plan either small or medium-sized events with local speakers sharing their own “ideas worth spreading” which is the motto of TED.
 
The TEDx event in Zug was sold out with a waiting list but all talks were recorded and will be posted online at www.tedxzug.com. The speakers at Thursday’s event were drawn from a variety of fields and talked on a variety of topics.
 
Mark Eisengger of the Fög, Forschungbereich Öffenlichkeit und Gesellschaft – a research "observatory" for the public domain and society at the University of Zürich, spoke on the topic “Reputation in 3 Dimensions” with three factors contributing to and determining reputation, be that of an individual, a company or a country. Those 3 can be summed up as true, good and beautiful.

The second speaker was Vera Weber who began working in the Foundation Franz Weber, founded by her father, in 1999, spearheading environmental campaigns across the world. She spoke about biodiversity as the principle building block of life.
 
The third speaker was Dana Brice Smith, the Co-Founder and Managing Director of Trestle Group Foundation (TGF). Guided by the belief that entrepreneurship fuels the engine that drives economic opportunity, growth and social progress, the Foundation empowers women entrepreneurs in emerging economies. Smith encouraged the audience to help bridge the gap between emerging markets and more developed economies by providing our “human capital” and support.

After the first three talks, there was a break for food and drinks and with music by Jazz i45 and Karin O’Bryan and a chance to network.
 
The second half featured three more speakers. Dominic Currer, Director of the International School of Zug and Luzern, spoke of the importance of an educational system which reflects the skills needed to succeed, not just on tests, but in life and in the greater community.
 
Monika Roth, partner in the law firm Roth Schwarz Roth, has expertise in regulatory compliance and economic fraud and gave a talk titled “Protect me from what I want”. She discussed the concepts of greed, regulation and standards. At the end she gave a call to arms, saying: “we need more upstanders, not bystanders”.
 
The final presenter was Lukas Ritzel, Web-Strategist for IMI University Centre in Lucerne and lecturer at Grenoble Graduate School of Business, France. He gave a dynamic “non-power point presentation” with a look back at how technology has changed and spread through the last decades and what the future holds in store for us.
 
The TEDx Zug organisers took their motto from Roman philosopher Seneca, who wrote: “the best ideas are common property”. Those in the audience certainly left richer after their shared TEDx experience, the six very different speakers having left them buzzing as they departed the half century-old Rathaus.  
 
Margo Clare Cummings