I was lucky enough to snag an invite to TEDx Shanghai at M1NT a week ago and while I've not had the chance to write about it until now, a number of sites have already done excellent coverage of the event (check out CNReviews on Stefano Negri: Preparing for China's Urban Billion and An Zhu (Andrew Yu: Travel Can Change the World). 


Highlights from TEDx Shanghai 2009

The topics for TEDx Shanghai (China's first ever TED) focused on the grassroots application of technology, internet and social networks as tools to improve the environment, the plight of the less fortunate, education and the spread of knowledge.

The general feeling of TEDx was to positively take charge as the individual and as a part of a larger community to help each other achieve great things. In the spirit of all TEDs--ideas worth sharing--it was a very exciting and inspiring event.
 

Other highlights of the day were Jason Hsu/Kevin Peng's Youth 3.0-Doing Good while Doing Well, Isaac Mao's The Sharism Philosophy, Kris Krug's Open Everything, Zhou Yunpeng's incredible I Sing Therefore I Am  (which brought me to tears), the vigorous performace by Jammala and the university students who talked about the development projects that they were passionate about.

Stefano Negri's and An Zhu's presentations were two of my favorites, as was Mihela Hladin's presentation on "common sense" that she put forth as the basic link between the environment and the social impact of our actions.  Her talk focused on community empowerment for better quality of life, contributing to a better environment, and how the consumer has the power to make environmental choices through their purchases.

About Mihela:

Being from one of the smallest countries, Slovenia, Mihela came to China in 2006 and founded Greennovate, a social business that aims to raise environmental awareness. Drawing her experiences from her own country's environmental recovery and working abroad, she wanted to make a difference in the way environment, business and quality of life have been perceived. Greennovate started in 2007 and since then has been inspiring companies, government and communities to take action in developing a China that is green and healthy for themselves and future generations. Greennovate successfully launched initiatives supporting awareness on plastic bags, sustainable fashion, green office spaces and environmental education. Mihela is passionate about redefining the ways of living and working in China.

Mihela Hladin's Common Sense Index

Here are my notes from Mihela's presentation. Keep in mind my notes are incomplete and at times ragged, as my typing could be faster...

Mihela: Last week one of the Chinese newspapers reported that it's disgraceful to have a fancy car but only dirty water to drink.
 
There's a simple connection between our actions and our consequences. I want to talk today about us as human beings and consumers... and where in the middle we lost our common sense. I am here today to talk about a simple idea called common sense. "Common sense" used to be defined as a place where all senses come together [in a state of] consciousness. 
 
How does [common sense] apply to us as consumers?

I'm coming from [Slovenia] the smallest of countries and was raised in a modest way – we grew our own vegetables at home, we had one TV, we were outside when the weather was nice.

Being curious and restless, I landed [in Texas] in the United States, where everything is bigger there. As soon as I landed it's not about what I need, it's about what I want. I was hooked, I forgot about the things I learned and bought and bought—XXXL-ing needs and wants.

[Later when I came to China] I exchanged my cowboy hat for hardhat and traveled in China. I was stunned by what I saw. While I was super-sizing my needs somewhere else, I realized where it was all coming from. I saw what is it beyond the prices that we are seeing on the shelf. How come I buy a pen [for 10 RMB] with ten functions and 30 parts that is coming from somewhere else? Where are my practical senses coming from? I was in a consumer comma.

I am not talking about a revolution, I would rather talk about evolution as a result and a way to go forward. We are living in a very challenging world, luckily compassion and sharing are coming back into our lives. And the air we have today is something we share. We share what we do and how we act.

Today we are connected more than ever before [online, Twitter, social networks] and one billion people are using [the internet] and this means we now have the power. We don't need anyone telling us what do to. We can start a change from the bottom up, we now have the power to use our common sense more than ever before.

If you know you are buying something and contributing to a better environment of somebody on another part of the world [you feel better about buying something]. This is the Common Sense Index. 
 
Calculating our carbon footprint is more complex, if every product reflects its environmental value plus its economic value – that is what we need as consumers.

Knowledge has huge value in China. Chinese people are big on consumer reviews, they see their consumer choices [and this creates] a circle empowering the communities here.

We are what we are repeatedly doing. Excellence is not in the act but in the habit. If we say we are the most advanced species in the world today, we need to be making the world better with every action that we do.
  
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Watch TEDx Shanghai:

To watch the TEDx Shanghai talks, go here. The organizers of TEDx Shanghai (Christine Lu and Sage Brennan) are planning another TEDx in Shanghai (or Beijing??) in September, so stay tuned and get in touch with them if you are interested in sponsoring, speaking at or attending the next event.

More articles about TEDx Shanghai:

Kris Krug: China update: TED x Shanghai
Shanghaiist: Socially responsible geeks converge on Shanghai
CNReviews: TEDxShanghai 2009 Coverage Overview

 
Photos from TEDx 2009:

TEDx organizers Christine Lu and Sage Brennan introduce the first TEDx to Shanghai.

Mihela Hladin talks Common Sense.

Isaac Mao talks about The Sharism Philosophy.

Stefano Negri demonstrates how to juggle urbanization challenges in China's ever-growing cities...



Jammala performs West African music and hope that through music more people will be able to come together in peace. Jammala means "peaceful" in Senegalese.

Jammala put on a very vigorous performance even though it was still quite early in the morning...and the audience was still a bit sleepy.



Greg and Ginger perform Shanghai Jazz.

Coley Dale (left) talks about why Ctrip sponsored and supports TEDx.



Author and technologist Kris Krug on Open Everything...