Re[Think] Hawaii & TEDx Honolulu

I’d been invited to travel to Oahu by the Oahu Visitor’s Bureau in exchange for blogging about my adventures there. At the same time, Christine Lu was planning re[Think] Hawaii, a small conference about start-ups, sustainability, and social media and the dates lined up perfectly. Christine generously waived the attendance fee in exchange for… well, let’s say I owe her a favor or three. Neenz, a Hawaii social, um, universe, she’s a social universe, invited the attendees of reThink Hawaii to TEDx, a morning of interesting ideas and speakers. Now for some long winded contextual stuff…

I’ve attended what feels like a pile of conferences this year — SxSW, TBEX, BlogHer, BlogWorld Expo, reThink Hawaii was the last in a long run. Unfortunately, it solidified something for me that I’ve been slowly concluding with each event that I attend — I don’t thrive in these environments. I’m not particularly shy, but I don’t like to do things in large groups. I’d really prefer to have dinner with two or three smartypants types, being in a room with 100 of them just isn’t that rewarding for me.

I can’t work a room. That’s not to say that I don’t want to meet you, it’s rather that I don’t have the skills to compete for your attention, a cheerier extrovert will do a much better job than I will and because of that, we probably won’t talk unless I sit next to you at breakfast or in those funny between times when everyone is elsewhere. I’m happiest in quiet conversation in a room where I can hear you. Though ironically, I have loved the speaker opportunities I’ve had this year, so I guess I like the spotlight when I don’t have to compete for it. How lazy is that?

All of this is just so you can place my experience in context. Bookish type, kind of a nerd, socially not that great, especially  in a room full of  extroverted success stories. Yeah, not so much my scene. I’m going to sit over there and observe, quietly, and process, thank you, and I probably won’t show up to shout at you in a noisy bar later, I’ll be in my room, reading and eating take out bento.

This doesn’t mean I’m not absorbing information or learning or making some good connections.  I was able to connect with some great people in the pantheon of Internet stars that attended and plan to follow up with a few — they’re doing work directly related to things that I’m doing. I loved the local presence — reThink and TEDx gave me the chance to spend quality time with people who live and work in Hawaii and I adore those folks, they’re wonderful. I’ve never felt so at home while living out of a suitcase. All that fuzzy stuff, the stuff around the edges, that was great.

But I was struck, repeatedly, but what was NOT talked about at both reThink Hawaii and TEDx. My short list:

  • Tourism: A lot of time was devoted to discussing sustainability, a critical issue with Hawaii’s limited resources. But we didn’t talk about tourism until I asked. This wasn’t a tourism or travel event, but with 800,000 people passing through the islands every year, including many of the people in that room, not talking about tourism seemed to willfully deny one of the biggest impacts to Hawaii’s economy and environment.
  • Education:  I attended more than one talk that mentioned how Hawaii could be the “Silicon Valley of energy” and how it’s got great potential as a business environment. While I sat in that room, restless teenagers sloped about the streets of Waikiki because of Hawaii’s embarrassing furlough Fridays — the state doesn’t have the funds to keep the kids in school full time. Skilled jobs in Hawaii are badly needed, but who’s going to do those jobs if Hawaii residents aren’t getting a quality education?  For personal reasons, I’d love to see a Hawaii tech corridor, but that’s because I want to live there. Is Hawaii creating the skilled workforce needed to fill those jobs once they’re created or are they going to go to lucky imported mainlanders?
  • Censorship: I really enjoyed Kaiser Kuo’s talk about our difficult relationship with China via the Internet, but I have a hard time removing the shadow of censorship from the conversation. I don’t understand the first thing about China. But I know that my friend B, when traveling there, couldn’t share his stories with me via his blog, he was blocked by what is amusingly called the Great Firewall of China. There’s a lot of excitement about China’s opening markets, but when it comes to open communication, what’s available to us as citizens? How much of the tone of the conversation with the outside world is controlled by the government? China certainly has the manpower to apply a heavy hand when it comes to censorship — are they? I don’t know.
  • Consumerism: I’m not really anti-consumer, I like my stuff just fine, but I sure wish we’d dial it back some as a society. I was frustrated by Henk Rogers talk about the new virtual world. It’s just one tiny thing, but he mentioned how virtual worlds make it easier for us to get virtual stuff. He’s also got the Blue Planet Foundation, an organizaiton that wants to end the use of carbon based fuels. That’s great, but isn’t the drive for stuff what causes us to burn all that carbon based fuel? Is the ability for us to get virtual stuff really going to diminish our desire for real stuff, or is it going to frustrate us, making us wonder why we can’t have that stuff in real life? Again, I don’t know.
    [Related side note: I REALLY appreciated that reThink and TEDx were swag free. Swag is fun, but when an event becomes more about swag than substance… TBEX did a nice job of making sure everyone got the same stuff and that it wasn’t just stuff.]
  • Success: Wow, there were a lot of very successful people there. And that’s really great for them, but for me, a person of a modest (but really very amazing life) I felt like the lessons of failure were eclipsed by the glamor of success. The most valuable stories are in lessons learned from failure, but I felt like I was hearing a lot of glowing reports on how awesome things were.  A lot of success models aren’t replicable — they’re a magical cocktail of inspiration and work and luck and connections. But failure is a unifying experience and it’s a good thing to learn how to fail without giving up. I realize that’s vague, but I loved beatboxboy Jason Tom’s remark about successful people failing more often. Sharing the failure factor? I would have like to see more of that.

The networking aspects aside, I suppose if Neenz and Christine Lu intended to send attendees out into the world thinking differently about, well, a few things, then I’m probably a fair argument for their success. I’m still rolling these issues around in my head. I dont have any real conclusions at this point, but I’m thinking, thinking and rethinking, a lot, about the last ten days in Hawaii.

12 thoughts on “Re[Think] Hawaii & TEDx Honolulu”

  1. Aloha Pam!

    First, I must say it was very nice meeting you in real life (IRL as we call it :). I know we didn’t get much chance to chat – I was there only for a day and that is just not enough to say hello and get to know all the geeky friends out there. That said, I am want you to know that I am more like you. I can’t work a room either and am more of the introvert. However, I enjoy being in huge gathering and conferences to learn and meet people. Hard to explain but you know what I mean.

    Second, I am with you about some topics that I wished were discussed more, like the role of social media on promoting tourism and education. They did touch some on tourism, but for Hawaii, maybe not quite enough.

    And so I came home thinking that I want to do a mini re-think. A Re-ThinkX Maui (Kinda like TEDx 😉 I have not bounced my ideas back with Christine and Neenz yet, but I am planning to. Will definitely ask for more of your input later.

    Overall, my one day participation in Re-Think was a great experience for me. It was well worth it flying from Maui to Honolulu. Next time, I should stay for 3 days 🙂

    A hui hou 🙂

    Reply
  2. Your story about how you process and interact at conferences should serve as a good reminder to organizer — people process differently and it’s still all good.

    When you write about Hawaii, I hear the love of the islands in your voice and words. Methinks you will be there more permanently in the not too distant future. Here’s hoping anyway.

    Reply
  3. @MJ When I organize a conference (ha) there will be a blind date dinners. Three conference goers + one local will go out. The conference goers MUST be strangers to each other. They’ll go somewhere locals go, and it won’t be noisy. It’s my grand idea for fixing some of the difficulties for People Like Me at conferences.

    Reply
  4. Aloha, Pam.
    Another RIGHT ON post about Hawai’i. Speaking as an almost-local (I’ve only been here 35 years) involved in sustainability issues since before sustainability was a meme, I deeply appreciate your sesitivity to our island ways and needs. Your eye for what’s really important and your genuine concern is obvious. reThink Hawai’i was an exciting opportunity, for me, to meet people like you. You share our interests viewed from a new perspective. I hope to see you and your probing questions back here soon.

    A hui hou!, Lika

    Reply
  5. Gosh Pam,
    your blog entry is inspiring me to collect and share my personal thoughts of the overall TEDxHonolulu (TEDxHNL) experience for my blog as well. I missed out on reThink Hawaii though, and can’t chime in with personal experience with that event. I also had no idea that SxSW is also a conference too, but I thought it was just a huge music festival. I’ve never been to SxSW, but I’ve heard many good things about it for music artists/bands, etc.

    It’s nice to read your perspective of the overall Re[Think] Hawaii and TEDxHNL conferences. I didn’t get to meet or know everyone on a more personal level at TEDxHNL, but I felt good vibes from the people (including you) that I did get to meet.

    You ROCK!

    Peas,
    jt

    Reply
  6. We all run around life sometimes in a hurry from one familiar routine or another …and every so often we get a chance to stop and look down to find our shoelaces untied. 🙂

    I had no idea what to expect from this first #rethink. I didn’t know who would show up. What we would talk about. What friendships would developed. What ideas would be sparked. What direction it would go.

    And I’m the organizer. LOL.

    I just knew that when you get good people together, great things happen. Often times — as is the example of my life — those things happen long after the event or connection is made …on each person’s own time and in their own way and initiatives.

    I wrote a post about the motivations for why I wanted to give this a try and I really appreciate you taking your time to be part of this.

    http://www.shanzhailu.com/why-rethink-in-hawaii

    Neenz and I joke that we had an agenda-less agenda. I’m really glad to hear that you did make some great connection and observations and just the fact that you took the time to give it some thought after wards via this blog posts makes me feel like it was all worth it as every single one of the points you make of what you wish were discussed are now on the table for discussion long after the conference is over.

    🙂

    Thanks again and hope you join us in Shanghai!
    Christine

    Reply
  7. @Christine: I’m DELIGHTED to read that you found my navel gazing useful. I’ve never been to Shanghai — or China for that matter — and I would SO like to go…

    Reply
  8. Pam,

    I too am more like you than most would believe. I like to sit at a table that holds maybe six people, have some delicious food, comfortable atmosphere, creative minds, and just chat for hours.

    But, sometimes the universe calls me to do more, and I heed her calling. I’ll keep going to the conferences because that’s where the people are — and then I’ll do my best to grab a small group and escape to a table that holds maybe six people, have some delicious food…well, you know the rest!

    btw Pam, thanks for your Aloha Spirit!

    Reply
  9. @Neenz: I totally get the calling thing, it’s why I go too. You know, I got on the boat outing, a HUGE stretch for me, ack, trapped on a boat! with strangers! — I get seasick and you’ve heard my social, um, disabilities? I’m glad you heed it, we’d not have met otherwise, though I look forward to the chance to sit at that table with good food and friends some time again, soon.

    Reply
  10. are you inside my head?! 🙂 having lived in an island culture, i’m stunned that a sustainability convo didn’t begin to address tourism…since that’s the $ grease that drives the wheel. and, yes, our obsession about STUFF…one of the things that drove me away from FB years ago was all the virtual ‘gifts’ i was getting. i don’t even like shopping for REAL gifts (& loathe the guilt-laden obligatory nature associated with them), so i’m really not gonna dig something that makes me feel guilty for not buying VIRTUAL stuff. as for success v. failure…that’s been on my mind a lot lately…and maybe it’s a natural evolution to think about it when one’s been blogging as long as we have…esp. when we’re surrounded by ppl that others deem big successes when we’re thinking, ‘wait a minute, i knew them when…’ (oh, just me?) 🙂 it drives home the point for me once again that my picture of success is very, very different than a lot of people’s, since mine is more about time freedom than material goods. this is all just a long-winded way of saying that a) i also like speaking, and b) i’d be the one sitting in a corner like a mute at a conference, waiting for a like-minded soul like yourself to make her way over. 😉

    Reply

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