The second half of the day at TEDxBoston started off just as energizing as the first. The presentations kicked off with the much anticipated performance from Muhan Zhang, a musician featured in the second portion of the morning presentations who took the stage with fellow musicians to play the crowd an inspiring piece titled “Tempest on an Endless River,” which featured a mix of ancient Chinese instruments and modern digital ones.

If you are looking for some more great content from people representing the companies, innovation and collaborative efforts changing the world make sure you visit the TED.com website.

One of these amazing efforts featured in a recent TED talk is Ushahidi, a website dedicated to real-time, crowd-sourced crisis mapping. The main connecting force in all of the TED efforts lies with the ability of the world to contribute and work together to create large projects with world wide impact. TED is allowing these innovative ideas to participate in a network of creativity connected through the digital world, crossing borders from one TED or TEDx conference to the other. From country to country we are together aligned and working as one force. TEDx, you’ll remember is a series of independently organized events modeled after the original TED conference. Read more…

The second morning session at today’s TEDxBoston 2010 event in the World Trade Center Boston was as exciting and engaging as the first. Topics ranged from how the way we depict things graphically teaches us to the role batteries will play in future sustainability.

We caught up with State Secretary of Housing and Economic Development Greg Bialecki during lunch, and he gushed about how great it is to have TEDx in Boston today.

Secretary Bialecki

“I think there’s a couple great things about what they’re doing today. One is just for the community here. I’ve always felt that one of our great strengths is not only that we have a lot of great people with great ideas, but in so many different areas. If you look at where we have done really cool things, it’s really at the overlap of those areas. For example, we have a great robotics cluster. That’s part technology and software but it’s also part precision manufacturing. This event really capitalizes on our strengths and makes sure people with good ideas from different sectors are aware of what each other are up to,” Said Bialecki.

“Just sitting in the chair, you could see how the ideas that one speaker was advancing could help the ideas of another speaker,” he continued.

Here’s a quick recap of the TEDx talks that happened during the second morning session: Read more…

TEDxBoston launched this morning with the first set of innovators speaking on everything from socialization in the world of gaming to the new generation of how housing will be built.

The event kicked off with a pretty killer bit of drumming by the Marcus Santos Group, and then accelerated into some of the newest ideas bubbling up in and around Boston.

Here are BostInnovation’s takeaways from the six speakers who addressed the audience this morning: (Remember you can watch TEDxBoston Live when it starts again.)

1.Dave McLaughlin, Boston World Partnerships: We need to build horizontal relationships to exist between vertical groupings. When those verticals come together we seed relationships across them creating idea flow. TED gives us the opportunity to spread ideas that are worth spreading. TED brings people together to allow ideas to flow and spark new thinking. These are the same goals of Boston World Partnerships.

A year and a half ago, Boston made an investment in seeding horizontal relationships with the establishment of Boston World Partnerships. By gathering high-achieving people, big thinkers who love Boston and think Boston is a capital of big ideas, Boston will soon become the innovation capital of the world. BWP helps to share expertise and contacts to help other people grow their business and achieve their dreams.

The smart cities that will succeed are the ones thinking about what will be necessary for growth. Read more…

Back in 1984, the TED Conference launched as a non-profit aimed at bringing the most brilliant minds in technology, entertainment and design (hence the ackronym name) together to talk about the cutting edge.

Today, TED has become one of the best sources for emerging theory and its practical application online. TED conferences are happening all over the world and each one is all about the propagation of inspiring new ideas. The organization now provides a free lecture series delivered in the form of short videos. TED posts new video content featuring “ideas worth spreading,” the organization’s slogan, every weekday on their blog.

Recent “TED talks” have been delivered by people like marine toxicologist Susan Shaw, who talked about the effects of the BP oil spill on marine wildlife, and Dimitar Sasselov, who explained how his research group has been able to identify 700+ potentially Earth-like planets.

With the popularity of TED arose a spin-off known as TEDx, where the “x” signifies that the event is independently organized outside of TED, but is dedicated to creating a TED-like experience.

Tomorrow, a TEDx conference of local thinkers — business people, journalists and scientists — will be held at the Seaport World Trade Center in the Innovation District. Twenty-seven presentations will be given, each 20 minutes long. All of them are expected to reveal some of the most interesting and enlightening ideas and projects currently underway in Greater Boston. Read more…