As mentioned in the previous post The TEDxKL : I Have a Secret was held today, 20th August 2011 at Publika, Dutamas. Full report next.

The venue, Publika is a complex of business offices that is similar in layout with Pusat Bandar Damansara but with residence apartments built into it. You can be forgiven for not knowing about this place, as it is not fully opened yet and there are many tenets still rushing to set up their shops within the complex. A big part of the beautiful complex is basically a ghost town. However, the dinning outlets have been opened for business so starvation is not a problem. There are really a lot of them, if I may add. So much so that you might mistake the complex for a dining mall. More about it at the Publika website.

There is an area of the complex dedicated for events which are artsy fartsy in nature called MAP@Publika. The Black Box, MAP@Publika is one of the halls in MAP@Publika honoured to host this event which is held for the 2nd time. As the name suggest it’s a hall where the interior is totally black, suitable to the TED theme.

The event was scheduled to start at 12.30pm, but staying true to the GMT (General Malaysian Time) system, the even started about an hour late. But, that aside, the event went on smoothly from that time onwards with minor glitches here and there, but nothing serious. If we were looking at the likes of Allahyarhamah Yasmin Ahmad and Premesh Chandran of Malaysiakini as the speakers, this years speakers are no less awesome.  Each given 18mins to present their case. The full list of speakers here.

Kicking off the session was Anas Zubedy, Founder of Zubedy S/B and a Unity Advocate. In his session he questioned the narrow style of religious culture in Malaysia where the right attain enlightenment was monopolized by a select group of people using a specific “formula”, so to speak, to earn a ticket to heaven, that is by adhering to practises and rituals. In his thought provoking (and most probably won’t go down well with the Religious Department, but then again aren’t they dissatisfied with everything? ) presentation, he invited the participants to re-evaluate their views about their work and the wonderful part it plays in the daily life of people everyday. Boldly claiming businessmen/business women will go to heaven, he explained how much good the business man/woman does by creating customers, which in time create jobs for the people working to produce a product which in turn allows them to purchase everyday goods and be a customer to other businesses. In short, businesses make the world go round and business owners scoring many-many afterlife points in the process. The idea is controversial, yet make sense.

Among other sessions worth noting was the session by the founder of Mind Valley. The company was founded by Vishen Lakhiani and its in the business of marketing books online. What’s interesting about this company is the way they operate, specifically the awesome working culture it possesses. The company is so awesome that they stop accepting resumes. Instead, applicants must make a short video about why they want to work in the company. The company focus on happiness of its team and they have many many “rituals” that encourages the staff to grow, increase productivity and work in a comfortable environment according to their preferred time.

And the international nature of the staff, means it is never short of great ideas coming from all over the world. The Talent Corporation should seriously look into this company because I believe that companies like this are the companies that can stop the brain drain that is plaguing the country by creating an environment where people are looking forward to going to work everyday.

There were many good speakers presenting ideas, each with their own uniqueness.

That uniqueness was brought to a higher level by the closing speaker, Jamal Raslan, a spoken word poet from Poet’s Passport. Inspired by Usman Awang and other poets, Jamal  adds in a contemporary touch to his poem which makes it sound like a cool melodic rap. Using English as his language of choice, the occasional typical Malay vocabulary in his lyrics really strikes the note when it comes to addressing current social issues portrayed in his poem. His awe-inspiring closing poem was followed by an awesome standing applause by the audience.

In short the TEDxKL : I Have a Secret was well worth the RM100 registration fee. I was so excited I also bought a TEDx T-shirt costing RM30 from the organizers. I would say it is money well spent (both RM100 and RM30).