TEDx Again Inspires Indonesia With Raft of Innovative Ideas

Jakarta Globe, Ulma Haryanto | December 19, 2010      

Jakarta. Participants of the sixth TEDx Jakarta conference were mesmerized on Sunday by inspiring presentations on a range of topics by a digital inventor, a designer and an educator, among others.

Anies Baswedan, rector of Paramadina University,
 gave an update of Indonesia Mengajar (Indonesia Teaches),
a program that sends young high achievers to isolated
 regions across the archipelago to teach for a year.
(Photo courtesy of DDB Indonesia)    

TEDx Jakarta is a local version of the Technology, Entertainment and Design conference based in California.

The event at Usmar Ismail Hall in Kuningan, South Jakarta, was the second such event for the year, TEDx Jakarta’s co-curator Lalitia Apsari told the Jakarta Globe.

She added that TEDx Jakarta events are held three to four times annually.

On Sunday, Chandra Tresnadi, winner of the 2010 Indonesian ICT award (Inaicta) for his interactive, multiplayer batik Internet game, showed his invention on a large touch-screen display.

“The idea was to create a game that would promote social interaction and participation as well as communication with strangers,” he said.

Chandra also said he wanted to present batik to the public in a very accessible way.

Adi Panuntun, whose video-mapping project at Fatahillah Museum in West Jakarta in March drew 50,000 visitors, was also invited to speak.

“At the time [of the Fatahillah project] I found a challenge in the quest for public space in Jakarta. And since my background is design, I saw [and presented] things differently,” he said.

Back in March, Adi made a documentary about Jakarta and projected it on the facade of the Fatahillah Museum.

“In the film, the museum was the actor. I used the building to tell a story,” he said, adding that he called the technique “video mapping.”

Rene Suhardono, career coach and author of “Your Job is Not Your Career,” urged attendants to reconsider their conceptualization of happiness and passion.

“I would like to challenge everyone here to do 21 different things every day and write or tweet about it,” he said.

Betti Alisjahbana, former chief executive of IBM, talked about ITB Untuk Semua (ITB for All), a scholarship that also offers soft skills courses.

Anies Baswedan, rector of Paramadina University gave an update of Indonesia Mengajar (Indonesia Teaches), a program that sends young high achievers to isolated regions across the archipelago to teach for a year.

“Those on the front-line of education — the teachers — are crucial. That’s why we send these young people, to lead and to inspire,” Anies said.

Also addressing the event was Irma Windi Lubis and a group of 10 children from Sanggar Roda, an organization in East Jakarta, that gives youngsters non-formal education and moral support with the help of music.

The event organizers said they had to work hard to find a diverse group of speakers on various topics, which is the prime characteristic of all TED events.

“There are a lot of inspirational speakers we would like to invite, but aside from big names we also want to introduce those who are less familiar,” Lalitia said.

Arief Aziz, Karina Sigar and Kartika Anindya were longtime fans of TED videos — available on YouTube — and after they found out that TED launched TEDx, they immediately contacted the California committee.

“The first three events [we organized] were held for 80 attendants, where we would watch TED videos together and invited several speakers. But we got requests to hold a bigger event,” Arief told the Globe. The current event is their sixth.

Anton, 27, works in advertising and Sunday marked his first visit to TEDx Jakarta.

“I’ve been subscribing to TED videos since college and was excited to know similar events are held here,” he said, adding that he hoped more speakers from other disciplines would attend.

“An astronomer for instance — topics that are outside of the mainstream,” he added.

Atten Dhaniel, 22, went to TEDx for the first time after his teacher talked about the videos. After attending the third event, he decided to offer his services as a volunteer.

Dhaniel believes TEDx events have great educational value.

“My favorite was the talk on nanotechnology,” he said.

Edison, a business analyst for an oil company in his late 20s, was upbeat about his first TEDx experience.

“The atmosphere is very energizing, young, and creative. I am excited to listen to all speakers,” he said.