Archive for the ‘Speaking’ Category:
Rather last minute (quelle surprise) but I'm speaking at what promises to be a fantastic event on Thursday evening (the 16th) in aid of the charity Help for Heroes. I'm talking for 20 minutes alongside an amazing line-up, including John Simpson OBE (BBC World Affairs editor), the record-breaking yachstwoman Dee Caffari MBE, Monty Halls, and author of Bravo Two Zero and SAS veteran Andy McNab.
For one unforgettable night, several of the finest speakers in the UK will gather at the Royal Institution, London, to present on the subject of courage, of achievement, of overcoming impossible odds – to celebrate heroism itself.
It's at the Royal Institution, the doors open at 6pm, and I think there are a few tickets left. There's more about the event here.
— Filed under Speaking
It's high time I wrote a proper update, but it ain't going to happen just yet, alas – it's nearly midnight and I'm up at 6am to go running. In the mean time, I wanted to share something I'm excited about, and to extend an invitation to those of you in London (or that might fancy a trip to the big smoke): I'm speaking at the School of Life at 7pm on the 15th of May.
"Who hasn’t dreamt of setting off to distant lands in search of adventure, or wondered what it would be like to really push yourself to your mental and physical limits? Somehow, for most of us, ordinary life gets in the way.
Ben Saunders is the youngest person ever to ski to the North Pole and holds the world record for the longest solo Arctic journey completed by a Briton. This evening he shares his extraordinary tales of dogged determination, strength and courage, telling us with unflinching honesty how it feels to step into the complete unknown.
If you secretly harbour dreams of pursuing a life of extreme adventure, or want to adopt a spirit of adventure closer to home, come and hear Ben’s advice on motivation, teamwork, success, failure, risk-taking and achieving our dreams, no matter how steep the odds."
I can guarantee that I won't be giving my usual schtick, and I'm already giddy about the prospect of speaking at a place that has wonderful people like this behind it. Do come along if you can.
Tickets are £10 including drinks. To book please call the School of Life on 0207 833 1010
— Filed under Speaking
It's rather short notice, but if you're planning an expedition at some point and you can get to London this weekend, you ought to come to Explore at the Royal Geographical Society. It kicks off on Friday evening with a talk by Paul Rose and there are workshops and presentations all weekend.
I'm running the polar panel on Saturday afternoon, and Jamie Buchanan-Dunlop and I are giving a talk about expedition comms on Sunday morning (hopefully involving a live Skype video call via BGAN satellite phone with Ed Stafford in the Peruvian rainforest!)
— Filed under Miscellany, Speaking
I'll be speaking at 2gether08 in London next week – "a festival of ideas and action… exploring how digital technologies can bring us major new social benefits". My plan is to throw open a challenge to what I'm hoping will be a fairly switched-on audience: how do we best use the internet to tell the story of SOUTH as it unfolds, and to engage as wide an audience as possible?
I'm on at 11ish on Thursday morning. If you're thinking of popping along, the line up looks pretty stellar.
— Filed under SOUTH, Speaking
On Saturday evening I'm speaking in King's Lyn, Norfolk, as part of the Royal Geographical Society's Regional Theatres Programme. Technically it's for members of the RGS and their guests only, but if you're not, and you'd really like to come along, then drop me an email and I might be able to sneak you in.
I'll be talking about my six Arctic expeditions so far, and my plans for Antarctica later this year. Kick-off's at 8pm, at the Kings Lynn Arts Centre, 27-29 King Street,Kings Lynn, Norfolk, PE30 1HA. RGS-IBG members can book tickets on 01553 764864.
— Filed under Speaking
The presentation I gave at the 2005 TED conference in Monterey, California has just been posted on the TED Talks website (alongside a talk given this year by one of my heroes, Burt Rutan). I think nerves got the better of me at the very start and there a couple of howlers – the Arctic Ocean isn't 5,500 square miles, it's 5.4 million. D'oh.
Anyway, you can watch my talk online, or download the audio as an mp3 (which means of course you'd miss out on my holiday snaps).
— Filed under Speaking
Two events in the past two years have changed my life profoundly. Both conferences, both in America, both mind-blowing; PopTech and TED. I've just returned from this year's TED in Monterey, California, where I've had the privilege of spending four days rubbing shoulders with the likes of Al Gore, Burt Rutan, Dr.Larry Brilliant (the chap that eradicated smallpox), Jeff Bezos (founder of Amazon.com), Sergey Brin and Larry Page (founders of Google), Matt Groening (creator of The Simpsons), Pierre Omidyar (founder of eBay), Tony Robbins (motivational speaker and bestselling writer) and many, many others.
Anyway, a few memories:
Biggest 'D'oh!':
The wonderful Daphne Zuniga (yes, Princess Vespa from Space Balls!) was interviewing people for a TED documentary. On Friday morning she came up to me in the foyer and introduced her friend – I didn't catch her name and I couldn't quite see her name badge, but despite big sunglasses she looked vaguely familiar. I shook her hand and she asked me how I was finding this year's conference. I launched into an effusive speech about how it was so wonderful that the famous (and/or super-rich) people there had so much humility; how TED was a unique forum for conversation about the big issues facing the planet and the human race, yadda yadda. And then the anonymous blonde removed her sunglasses. I was chatting to Meg Ryan.
Most Surprising Speaker:
I was blown away by Sir Ken Robinson, who spoke movingly, passionately and hilariously about the mess that the education systems of the western world are in, and the importance of fostering rather than inhibiting creativity in children. 'All kids have tremendous creative potential, and we are squandering it: schools educate kids out of creativity – the process of having innovative ideas that have value – because mistakes are stigmatized – and if you're not prepared to be wrong, you will never come up with anything original.' Ethan Zuckerman somehow blogged Sir Ken's talk in real time.
Best Poetry:
The incredible 'slam poet' Rives. You can hear his poem 'Mockingbirds' here.
Most Unexpected Bonus:
Driving up the coast to San Francisco after the conference in a Mustang convertible.
Biggest post-TED downer:
Learning that my luggage is still at LAX.
For a more thorough write-up, Ethan Zuckerman, Bruno Giussani, The Lone Ronin and the official TED Blog have it sewn up.
— Filed under Speaking
If you've ever wondered who a charity like the Duke of Edinburgh's Award might turn to if they'd been expecting none other than the Prince of Darkness himself (and his wife Sharon) to speak at an award ceremony next week, only to be let down at the last minute, then look no further.
That's right. I was before Bono in the speaker line-up at this years TED conference, and now I'm stepping in to speak instead of Ozzy and Sharon Osborne. My life gets more surreal by the minute.
Back in the real world, I've been tarting the site up a bit. There's now (mainly so my mum can keep tabs on me) a 'Where's Ben?' section on the left, along with a random smattering of my Flickr photos a bit further down. The site had a bit of an overhaul at the weekend – it's now running on a brand spanking new install of the fabulous WordPress. There are a few glitches I haven't figured out yet; let me know if you find anything that's broken.
— Filed under Miscellany, Speaking
A friend sent me a text message today, signed off with 'keep smiling and juggling'. I wonder if they realise how apt it was – it seems like I'm trying to fit in at least twice as much as I actually have time for at the moment, with the resulting suspicion that *everything* is being either rushed (sleeping, eating, training, writing), neglected (email, blogging, social life) or ignored entirely (that nagging feeling that I need to say no to a few things, and focus on the really important stuff).
PopTech was brilliant. 'Brilliant' is a huge cop-out, I know, but I took hardly any notes, and a full-blown write-up would take hours. For me, it all came together on Saturday morning, in a session called 'Big Fixes', when Cameron Sinclair, Neil Gershenfeld and Bunker Roy took to the stage. Cameron's talk was perhaps the most rousing of the entire conference ('I can hire an entire village for the price of one Halliburton employee…') and his impassioned stories of engaging communities with the simple incentive of making the world a better place proved a striking contrast to Peter Diamandis' talk on day one (of engaging individuals through the incentive of a whopping great cash prize).
Sadly, I wasn't speaking this year (sad because you couldn't hope for a warmer audience than the PopTech crowd) but I did get to serve ice cream.
— Filed under Speaking
The good news: I spoke at an event for the Discovery Channel last night, but it was about as far removed from the usual hotel conference centre as you can get – the venue was the breathtaking Whitepod 'eco camp' in the Swiss Alps (see wobbly cameraphone shot). It was a very intimate event, with a fantastic mix of (mostly Scandinavian) guests and by the time I did my bit in the evening, it felt like I was addressing a bunch of friends. I was booked on an early flight from Geneva back home this morning and I was treated to a high-speed dawn skidoo ride to meet a waiting taxi further down the valley. (Cue James Bond fantasies of ducking bullets, skydiving off cliffs and yanking open Union Jack parachutes…)
The bad news: I didn't actually get to sleep in one of the Whitepods – they were all full and I crashed out on some sofa cushions, on the floor of the chalet next door. I have a stinking cold, I've nearly lost my voice, the flight home was delayed for ages and when we did get airborne, it was full of screaming kids and the soggy bacon and egg 'panini' we were served gave me flashbacks from our journey through Siberia last spring. The Bond fantasy didn't last long.
— Filed under Speaking
I've just got back from speaking at TED in Monterey, California, and what an event it was. I don't think I've ever met such an incredible community of people under the same roof, and I can't imagine that there's anything quite the same anywhere else on the planet. The awesome Pop!Tech came close, but the two are very different; Pop!Tech had a cosy, welcoming, laid-back atmosphere whereas at TED I felt a little intimidated by the whole affair when I first turned up.
The sheer level of intellect, achievement and, well, money that was hovering around was almost overwhelming. The founders of Google, eBay and Amazon.com were there. The co-discoverer of DNA was there. The head of General Motors was there. The creator of The Simpsons was there. U2's Bono spoke to the audience (via a very snazzy near-holographic satellite link) for nearly an hour. David Blaine was playing card tricks on guests. And I had to get up and speak to all 1,000 'TEDsters' on Thursday afternoon.
After my 20-minute talk, however, everything changed – like the survivor of a rite of passage, I was sucked right into the heart of TED. My mind is still spinning, but I'm going to try and pick out a few of the highlights for me over the next few days.
The first has to be the contrast between the stunning (and often shocking) photography of Ed Burtynsky and the phenomenal vision, optimism and energy of the designer Ross Lovegrove and the architect William McDonough. Sustainability is a bit of a buzzword right now, but the work these visionaries are doing utterly reaffirmed my faith in the human race. Moving stuff indeed, and I now have a few exciting ideas to do with this year's expedition bubbling away. I'll write more soon.
Elsewhere, I've just noticed that those fine fellows over at StyleGala.com have included my site in their 'worth a visit' section – wahey!
Last but not least, there are some TED2005 photos on Flickr. There's one of me in there somewhere…
— Filed under Speaking
Oooh mumma. TED kicked off at 2pm today – the first speaker was Nobel Laureate and cracker of the DNA code, James Watson and from then until 6:30 the speakers, stories, ideas, concepts and questions came thick and fast – speakers have just 18 minutes each on stage (there are 50 speakers in four days) and there's no time for q&a. There are some incredible people here, and the whole event has been slightly surreal so far – I've just got back from a cocktail party at Monterey's fabulous aquarium – I was completely zonked with jetlag and hung out with my friend Alex Steffen from WorldChanging.org.
I'm a bit miffed that I'm not feeling on top form. I still have toothache (and an accompanying hamster cheek) and I'm hoping it'll clear up before tomorrow – I'm on stage at three-ish, in the unenviable slot between the hilarious Ze Frank and, er, Bono. I'll let you know how it goes and I'll endeavour to write a little more about this exceptional event before too long…
— Filed under Speaking