The place you live needs desperately to be more connected. We are living days where more connection is the new medicine. TEDx is a remarkable context to connect your people and your town to the world. Why?

Because:

I gave you some of the reasons but is far better if you see it for yourself. And here is the best way I've found to tell you about this. I'll show you here two presentations by the multiple bestselling author Seth Godin by showing what I consider the single idea that is most important to get first.

That means that we are in a post-Knowledge Age era.

The days where knowing how to process information alone would suffice are in plain decay everywhere. Some places aren't feeling it yet but they eventually will. We are living in the first years of what Seth called a century of ideas diffusion a century where ideas that spread win. In these days we need to do remarkable actions to get people's attention and use it with a purpose to deserve to retain it.

Social merit is The Way to retain attention. Which means that if your activity isn't producing social merit, then is worthless to speak about it. That, by the way, is the number one reason that explains why many many companies aren't going to understand how to have a meaningful presence in the so called social media and they will try to use it as they use broadcast and it won't work.

Could seem trivial but I think is worthy to say that, symmetrically, ideas that can't spread will necessarily loose. Those will be outweighed by the opportunity costs. Loosing doesn't means to die. They may survive (even for a long time), but if they aren't spreading, if they aren't part of The Conversation, then they are loosing real opportunities: they are in survive mode. And you already know that survive, while isn't a bad thing, is not an appealing goal.

The way to create that social merit is in hands of the leaders which is the second most important idea to get:

Standing for an idea that people desires, and idea that makes them to be better, that inevitably creates an economical niche. When that happens people lower barriers and start to feel generous. That's the point where change happens.

Paradoxically the ideas itself are worthless. You need remarkable implementations of those otherwise you get nothing. That's exactly where technology and design are your new friends. That's exactly how TED become a winner idea by design: by spreading lots of remarkable implementations in a very usable format.

Spreading ideas and leading is The Way to start creating the wealth the world needs because, as a by product of it, you can sell stuff, grow and sustain a movement or create a whole industry.

This is far from being original, anthropologically it is well known that we work this way since language was invented. Is only now that we made the right connection with this idea and our modern businesses, movements and lifestyles.

If you look closely, TED is an example itself of all this (that what is making it a good leader movement). While it is a great business it puts all the content online for free. That's reducing the spread resistance vector and that's how the world can watch. 

Richard Wurman (author of Information Anxiety) saw the convergence of design and technology decades ago, he saw that experiences can be designed that's why he coined the term "Experience Architect".

Chris Anderson curates the TED content and, as part of it, they developed a web application (their site) that publishes online all their videos so the ideas spread naturally.

But the real value isn't online. Is offline. 

The real value is in the change provoked by the speakers. Is in the people. People there get connected so they aren't forgotten. That's the TED experience you can't have unless you are invited.

But they're smart enough to understand that TED is going to work even better if

That's how it's changing the world one speech at the time and that's how you can connect the place you live to the world with one feasible action that will give you and your pals tons of social merit.

Please consider seriously to stand and lead the next TEDx of the city where you live, we need it.