What’s better then bringing together some of the worlds most creative, intelligent people, mixing them together, discussing forward-thinking ideas and watching these world changing concepts come to life?  The TED conference is an extraordinary mix of concepts and talent, and if you haven’t heard about it yet, here’s a quick summary from the official website:

TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader. The annual conference now brings together the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes).

Attendees and speakers are among the likes of Al Gore, Tony Robbins, Malcolm Gladwell, Nicholas Negroponte, Bill Gates, Rupert Murdoch, Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos, Jeffrey Katzenberg and other notable individuals from various fields.  It’s interesting to consider what it’d be like to wander the halls of this conference, striking up conversation with any of these individuals.  Imagine the cross-pollination that takes place in such a setting.

While TED is a private event, any person with an internet connection can benefit from the content provided each year.  I’ve been listening to the TEDtalks series on their website at http://www.ted.com, and thoroughly enjoying the concepts discussed.  You can listen, free of charge, to talks on subjects such as…

• Humanity’s Origins (Louise Leakey)
• A computer that works like a brain (Kwabena Boahen)
• Positive psychology (Martin Seligman)
• Technology, faith and suffering (Billy Graham)
• Studies of the brain in love (Helen Fisher)
• A year of living biblically (A.J. Jacobs)
• The study of biology to make animation (Torsten Reil)
• Institutions vs collaboration (Clay Shirky)
• One laptop per child project (Nicholas Negroponte)
• Engineering and evolution (Robert Full)
• Birth of the computer (George Dyson)
• The worldwide web of belief and ritual (Wade Davis)
• Memes and “temes” (Susan Blackmore)
• Designing objects that tell stories (Yves Behar)
• 6 ways mushrooms can save the world (Paul Stamets)
• String theory (Brian Greene)
• The new open-source economics (Yochai Benkler)
• Creativity (Amy Tan)
• CERN’s supercollider (Brian Cox)
• Connecting the world (Hector Ruiz)
• Germ domestication (Paul Ewald)
• Big questions about the universe (Stephen Hawking)
• Scanning the brain in real time (Christopher deCharms)
• New thinking on the climate crises (Al Gore)
• Rethinking the music video (Jakob Trollback)
• On the verge of creating a synthetic life (Craig Venter)
• As a young rebel (Frank Gehry)
• Building uniqueness (Moshe Safdie)
• Collaboration (Howard Rheingold)
• The mystery box (J.J. Abrams)
• Compassion (Daniel Goleman)
• Thinking deep on design (Philippe Starck)
• How the law is strangling creativity (Larry Lessig)
• Beauty and truth in physics (Murray Gell-Mann)
• The habits of happiness (Matthieu Ricard)
• Our mobile phones (Jan Chipchase)
• Building “self aware” robots (Hod Lipson)
• And a lot more…

You can view these and other talks by going to http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks.  Also, I recently watched a DVD entitled “The Future We Will Create,” which is an excellent overview of the TED conference,  showing speaker highlights from a past year.  I’d highly recommend checking out this DVD if you’re interested in learning more about the conference, as well as hearing some interesting ideas.

3EG originally came into the world as ToolGathering in ‘03, in which we as fans of the band Tool wanted to bring together others who appreciated some of the concepts, art and aural style that the band Tool brought forth.  Early on in our effort, we had serious issues in attempting to work with Tool’s management, who attempted to smother our fledgling event, though I’ll give credit to their drummer Danny who I met a couple times around LA and he was always very down to earth, friendly and cool about our effort.  And while I think Maynard is one of the best singers out there, I’ll refrain from going into details on his, uhm, “support.”

Through the turmoil of attempting to bring something meaningful together, we had met a handful of extremely talented artists, musicians and thinkers who were interested in what we were doing, we realized this was more than just a group of fans of a band, and thus the event was rebranded as Third Eye Gathering, or more commonly, 3EG.  The first 3EG-branded event was a 3 day day and night festival in Irvine, CA in which we had visual effects, art from talented artists such as Cam De Leon (known for earlier Tool album artwork) and Tony Koehl, a roster of talented up and coming bands including members of the prog-rock band King Crimson, as well as presentations on various ideas, movie screenings and discussions.

The concept behind 3EG has and continues to be a synergy of live music, presentation of progressive art and infusion discussion of interesting ideas.  The goal is to stimulate all of the senses and the intellect and to stir the soul.  The 3EG movement has come out as an enjoyable experience with participants from around the world, and because 3EG is a 100% volunteer effort put on by people who fairly busy lives, we only tend to have a 3EG event once a year.  It’s about time for another gathering.

We’ll be having the next installment of 3EG this September the 12th on a private ranch in Paso Robles wine country, just outside of San Luis Obispo county.  This is in partnership with a long-time friend of the organization by the name of Chad Land who is actually doing most of the leg-work on this event.  Chad first played ToolGathering back in ‘03 with his band 00 Metro, and now heads up the band Axia who will be playing this event.  It’s a camping event in which we’ll have rock bands during the day, and electronic as well as acoustic accompanied by visual effects at night.  There will be BBQ, music, art and community.  I’m stoked.

The details should be online shortly for anyone who might be interested.

1. Do one thing at a time
2. Know the problem
3. Learn to listen
4. Learn to ask questions
5. Distinguish sense from nonsense
6. Accept change as inevitable
7. Admit mistakes
8. Say it simple
9. Be calm
10. Smile

Austin