Dumping stereotypes about “trailer trash,” dropping the current health care payment system on its ear, and embracing social media as a means of saving young lives were some of the ideas shared on Oct. 8 at the seventh TEDxMacatawa conference held at Hope College.
A large crowd — most of them participants in past TEDx conferences — attended the half-day event to hear 13 speakers from West Michigan give short (18 minutes or less) nonpartisan speeches about their ideas for improving the world.
“I love TED because it creates a platform on which novel ideas can be shared and spread,” says Vince Boileau, managing partner at the Holland integrated communications firm Boileau & Co. Boileau holds the TEDx license. “No two ideas presented were alike. Together these talks are our community’s intellectual and imaginative contributions to the global TED stage.”
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Courtesy TEDxMacatawaSpeeches given at this locally organized TEDx conference will be uploaded to the national organization for posting consideration.
TED is an acronym for the convergence of technology, entertainment and design ideas that could shape a brighter future. Speeches given at this locally organized TEDx conference will be uploaded to the national organization
https://www.ted.com/ for posting consideration. All talks given at 2024 TEDxMacatawa will be posted by the end of the month at
https://tedxmacatawa.org/.
The 10 volunteers who assist Boileau with organizing the conference received 90 applications from speakers eager to share their ideas. The committee narrowed the field to 40 that best meshed with TED objectives, then used video pitches to trim the field to 20. The final 13 were chosen to provide a program with variety and broad appeal, Boileau says.
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Courtesy TEDxMacatawaA large crowd — most of them participants in past TEDx conferences — attended the half-day event.
Mission accomplished
Attendees at an afterglow party gave the conference favorable remarks for providing a spectrum of inspirational speakers. Everyone who was asked to comment cited a different talk as their favorite.
“I came mostly to hear Harle Battjes, who I know through the Chamber of Commerce leadership program,” said Kim Vandermolen, of Lakeshore Family Chiropractic. “She’s a new speaker and a new voice, and I knew she’d have thoughtful things to say.”
Battjes, a Holland native who grew up in a manufactured home community, challenges the “trailer trash” stereotype. She says she keeps her housing expenses low by living in a mobile home. This economizing contributed toward her being able to graduate from college and, over time, is helping her escape generational poverty.
Manufactured housing wields fewer negative environmental impacts than on-site construction, Battjes says. She offered several ideas for empowering residents of manufactured home parks to shape stronger, more functional and beautiful communities.
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Courtesy TEDxMacatawaAll talks given at 2024 TEDxMacatawa will be posted by the end of the month at https://tedxmacatawa.org/.
As a former broadcast news reporter, presenter Alexis Rosado said she often found herself “interviewing people on the worst times of their lives.”
She now finds greater satisfaction in using her media skills to save young lives through powerful audio and visual messages posted to YouTube, TikTok and Instagram. Her Brave Space project is credited for preventing at least one teen suicide.
Graylen Erdmann, a learning and development specialist at LG Energy Solutions, said her favorite talk was Lindsay MacMillan’s presentation, “The Unifying Power of Fiction.” Erdmann, who earned a bachelor’s degree in writing, says she loves to read romance and fantasy novels and is put off by others who consider reading fiction a waste of time.
“Lindsay makes the case that reading novels is how we can gain empathy for others who are not like the people in our lived experience,” Erdmann says.
Erdmann says the talk affirmed her avid reading habits and inspired her to write more.
Kylie White, an account manager at Boileau & Co., says engineer and designer Cort Corwin’s talk, “Solutions Won’t Solve Our Creativity Crisis -- Problems Will,” revealed the approach she believes her team should take in hiring staff. Corwin says creative teams need to have a balance of “discovery thinkers” and “delivery thinkers” to achieve innovative work.
The trouble is, discovery thinkers tend to gravitate to new challenges, and new visionaries attuned to finding and defining problems aren’t recruited to replace them, Corwin says.
“I never heard it framed so simply,” White says. “Now it’s clear to me. I know how we should go about it.”
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Courtesy TEDxMacatawaNo two ideas were alike at the seventh TEDxMacatawa conference. Oct. 8.
Bonnie Verwys, 90, loved comedienne Laurie Ayers’ talk “Getting Old Isn’t Funny – But We Are.” The talk paid homage to Betty White, Bob Hope, George Burns, and Phyllis Diller, comedians who lived to be 95 to 100 years old — and continued entertaining almost until death.
Verwys, who has operated the Parsonage Bed & Breakfast at 6 E. 24
th St. in Holland since 1984, says she, too, believes staying active, maintaining social ties and having fun are keys to longevity. But running a B&B is hard work, and her family thinks 40 years is enough. She is not booking guests for 2025, but she says she still pursues goals.
“I have a layered and baked macaroni and cheese recipe that would win a cook-off,” Verwys said. “I’m going to give it to the Duistermars boy.”
Holland Christian Middle School student Charlie Duistermars drew robust applause for his approach to remedying food insecurity — inspiring community donations of macaroni and cheese — which just happens to be his favorite dish.
Duistermars’ Mac ‘n’ Cheese Ministries is a registered nonprofit organization. It helps supply micro food pantries in neighborhoods as well as community-wide free food distribution networks.
“Take something you really like – like I really like mac and cheese – and use it to move the needle,” says Duistermars, 13.
Tackling big issues
By design, TED talks are nonpartisan.
Nevertheless, Dr. Kurt Lindberg, president and medical director of the 190-member Holland Physician Hospital Organization, spoke convincingly about the need to reform the United States health care system without mentioning the word “politics.”
Reform, of course, could not be achieved without bipartisan political support.
Americans have the most expensive health care in the world, yet the population tends to be sicker and dies sooner than citizens of comparable countries, Lindberg says.
The reason is that people without commercial insurance – and, in some cases, with commercial insurance that has a very high deductible — don’t see doctors for preventative care. Untreated, little problems often become big problems by the time a patient is seen in the emergency room, where “rescue care” is guaranteed. Hospital systems then must raise rates on insured consumers to cover costs of the uninsured.
“I want to help people understand the equation as doctors experience it,” Lindberg says. “To accomplish that, I need to speak in a public forum, like TEDx. There are many ways to approach the problems, but most do involve a quantum shift away from the system we have today and an investment that would lower insurance rates, but not for a while.”
Lindberg’s talk “You Get What You Pay For — Transforming the U.S. Health Care System” highlighted initiatives of private insurance companies paying physician practices for preventative care in order to reduce costs by keeping patients healthier. Even venture capitalists are willing to invest their own money into better preventative care in exchange for a share of the savings in the future “when people never get sick in the first place,” Lindberg says.
“This investor’s approach to reforming the health care system was really interesting,” said Heather Westrate, of Holland. “Something is wrong because, as a nation, we’re sick although we pay a lot. We’re not moving forward.”
Lindberg, like the other presenters, worked with volunteer speaking coach Patrick Clark to craft their speeches.
Boileau says he will contact the TEDx committee in coming weeks to gauge when the next TEDxMacatawa conference may be scheduled. More than 100 volunteer hours, spread across the committee, are usually required to stage the event. Typically, conferences are 12 to 18 months apart.