Blog
In 2009 Tokyo hosted the first TEDx event outside of the United States. Keen to share the experience with TEDsters around the world, volunteers from Virgin Earth Inc. and Gotcha Media collaborated to provide a live stream of all presentations, in what was another first for TEDx.
Bilingual broadcast
When it came to planning for TEDxTokyo 2010, we looked to see how we could share the ideas presented on the day with a far larger audience. An obvious solution was to cater for local TEDsters by providing simultaneous Japanese translations of the talks. To do this we’d need not only a team of experienced interpreters, but also a lot more cable, double the bandwidth and an even more enthusiastic post-production team to edit the resulting 42 videos.
The day before the event we arrived at the venue with 4 cameras, hundreds of metres of cable, countless computers and a huge array of additional components, all of which were then painstakingly connected together like a huge jigsaw puzzle.
The resulting picture was fantastic. As we went live at 9am hundreds of viewers logged on to our two main high-def streams, choosing whether to watch in English or Japanese. As the online buzz spread (aided by the social media team tweeting out links and uploading photographs from inside the auditorium), so the numbers steadily climbed, reaching over 4,300 unique viewers in 57 countries by the end of the day.
Backstage channel
In another first for a TEDx event, we decided to give our global audience a chance to see behind the scenes between sessions. With the generous support of USTREAM, we set up a third live video channel, interviewing speakers, participants and volunteers throughout the day. Thanks to the wonders of Tokyo’s high-speed 3G data network, we were also able to join the lunchtime buffet down on the shores of Odaiba. This proved to be immensely popular, and by the end of the day this channel had seen over 7,700 unique viewers.
On-demand videos online in hours
A key part of our strategy was to make all talks available on-demand as soon as possible, as, due to time zone differences we were aware that the largest segments of our potential audience (in the US and UK) would be going to bed halfway through the event.
Thanks to an all-digital workflow pioneered by the volunteer production crew, the generous provision of computers by Tokyo 2.0, and the speed of the post-production team from Virgin Earth, we had the first videos up on YouTube within a few hours of the speakers having left the stage. This strategy worked very well, with the videos being viewed over 44,000 times during the following week.
Looking back now, we’re delighted by how far the ideas shared at TEDxTokyo have reached. With total views to date exceeding 50,000, it’s clear that the efforts made by all volunteers have paid off.
We look forward to doing it again next year – the only problem might be coming up with new TEDx Firsts to attempt!
Resources
All TEDxTokyo 2010 talks are now available here
Interviews with speakers, participants and volunteers are available here.
We did it!
We’re happy to tell you all that our second year resulted in a great success! Over 400 people, including speakers, performers, backstage crews and operation team, gathered at Miraikan in Odaiba on May 15th. Our brains were totally shaken in a different way from usual, and plunged into many magical moments.
So what now? Naho, Community Catalyst of TEDxTokyo, has founded a spin-off project that focuses extensively on younger generations, so-called Generation Y and Z. The launch event will be held on June 19th, Sat, in Aoyama.
It’s called TEDxTokyo yz
http://tedxtokyoyz.com/
Go check it out and join us in this new movement!
I had the good fortune to meet Miho Walker and Amy Moyers-Knopp from Living Dreams at last year’s TEDxTokyo. Their passion and tireless efforts on behalf of the orphans of Japan, along with Burton’s interest in providing an opportunity for all kids–no matter what their family status–led to a day trip for 19 kids from a local Tokyo orphanage, getting them out of the city and into the great mountains of Japan for their first snowboarding experience. Living Dreams handled all the Tokyo logistics, while Burton provided clothing and made the contact with North Star/Norikura, one of the great snowboarding locations in Japan. Kids who would have had very little chance of experiencing a full day of lessons and fun at a real snow resort got to do just that as a result of the 2009 TEDxTokyo event.
Bill Werlin
General Manager
Burton Snowboard Corp.
Considered one of the world’s savviest financial strategists, JP Morgan’s Jesper Koll has made Japan his focus for over a quarter of century. Consistently upbeat about the country’s economic prospects even when the situation looks bleak, he sees Japan’s strong technology base, low financial leverage, savings levels and smart and industrious labor force as reasons to predict upturns rather than downturns. Earlier this decade, Koll wrote two books in Japanese—Towards a New Japanese Golden Age and The End of Heisei Deflation—that underscored his faith. He also frequently presents his views at high-octane forums and in articles for major publications in Japan and abroad.
But one non-economic expression of Japan’s collective mindset gives Koll pause. While students from regional economic rivals like Korea, China and India spar for spots in U.S. undergrad and graduate programs, more and more of their Japanese counterparts turn away with a shrug. They’ve become “grass-eaters”—content to stay local and avoid risk and close encounters of the international kind.
According to the latest depressing statistics, Japanese undergrad enrollment has plummeted 52 percent since 2000, and 27 percent for grad school. By contrast, South Korea has two and a half times more students in U.S. colleges. In the same decade, China’s student population in the U.S. rose 164 percent, and India went up 190 percent. And U.S. grad schools welcome close to twice as many grad students from South Korea—and over three times as many from China and India—than they do from Japan.
“Clearly the crucial value of an international education goes well beyond the coursework assigned, whether it is in bio-engineering, financial accounting or anime film-making,” Koll commented in the November 2009 edition of the ACCJ Journal. “Rather, it is the people with whom you live, the friends you make while studying, and the shared experience of becoming an adult that are priceless, that are a value that no on-the-job training at a closed-circuit Japanese company will ever be able to provide.”
Will Japan lose out economically because of this passive and shortsighted sakoku (seclusion)? Koll thinks so. “I am worried that this may turn out to be the biggest fundamental challenge for Japan Inc. to be able to maintain its global leadership and sales-champion position.”
Doug Jackson
TEDxTokyo Storyteller
