When you just look back

It’s been a while since I got to know about TED, Technology, Entertainment, Design. While I was working in Japan, a friend of mine introduced me one translation project in the TED, called TED Open Translation Project. I started taking part as a translator, and by creating a www-based service for translation.

Having seen the available videos in the TED, I couldn’t help myself thinking about actually participating in one of those talks, either as an audience or as a speaker. Prices of those TED talks are usually rather expensive and it seemed to be a bit difficult to take time, flying to different places in the World while you’re working in full-time (yes, this is one of those typical Japanese corporate cultures).

This friend, who introduced me, started organizing a localized version of TED by himself in Okinawa. With the name “TEDxRyukyu“, the event seemed to be very successful. I wish I was there, but way to Okinawa seemed to be a bit too far away (though I must admit I tend to be lazy when flying to another place is required..). So I’ve been involved in TED for almost 3 years, and I still haven’t seen a single talk with my own eyes.

Suddenly I thought about a local TED talk event in Vienna. The city is much larger than Okinawa, and I remember they’re hosting TEDxTokyo (and many other places in the World). There is indeed an TED local conference in Vienna as well, and it was less than 2 weeks ahead!

About 2 hours later, I finished registering my ticket to TEDxVienna, hoping that I wasn’t too late and they’d accept my registry. I remember that it was “you’ll have to reserve your seat before others” in TEDxRyukyu, and there was no profile-checking process involved. Perhaps it’s up to the organizer to decide. Luckily, I could register with as a student, so going to MBA wasn’t such a bad idea ;-)

About 3 horus later, I got a confirmation from TEDxVienna and I instantly paid for my ticket. I’m already feeling a bit excited to see the talks in (less than) 2 weeks. It’d be a very long Saturday with practically about 12 hours of talks.