Goldie Hawn on the TED stage last week in Monterey. The session was entitled – “I have a dream.”
Three TED prize winners for 2007 talked to us about their vision, their dream.
Jeff Bezos had the honor of introducing former President Clinton to the TED stage, who followed infamous photojournalist James Nachtwey and EO Wilson.
This is how it works: each prize winner gets a ‘wish.’ James Nachtwey wants to break a story he feels the world ‘needs to know about.’ In order to do this, he needs to gain access to a place in the world where a critical situation is occurring and document it with photography.
A man passionate about nature, EO Wilson wants to create the Encyclopedia of Life to help inspire preservation of the Earth’s biodiversity. This encyclopedia would be open to allow scientists to contribute to the site and in doing so, make the world aware of the importance of this initiative.
He is looking for a major website design combined with a powerful search technology that can aggregate existing biological information and make it easily accessible to everyone.
Clinton’s wish revolved around Africa, more specifically, Rwanda and its rural healthcare system. He is asking people to support the Clinton Foundation and Paul Farmer’s Partners in Health Organization who are already on the ground in Rwanda.
Part of their efforts is to provide free primary healthcare access and education for the poor, including AIDS prevention and treatment. Funding for this initiative is not cheap, perhaps as high as $4 million or higher a year for the next five years.
In addition to funding, he is looking for transportation solutions, generators, solar panels and rainwater collection systems.
Says Clinton, “Poverty is worse than corruption in third world countries, but the systems are not in place for drugs to reach people who need them. We need to develop a model for rural healthcare in the developing world, a model that can be implemented in other third world countries, one which can sustain itself without any foreign donors after 5-10 years.”
After the session, Clinton shakes hands and says hello to TEDsters both on and off the stage.
Clinton with other prize winners on stage immediately following the award presentation:
Renee Blodgett is the founder of We Blog the World. The site combines the magic of an online culture and travel magazine with a global blog network and has contributors from every continent in the world. Having lived in 10 countries and explored nearly 80, she is an avid traveler, and a lover, observer and participant in cultural diversity.
She is also the CEO and founder of Magic Sauce Media, a new media services consultancy focused on viral marketing, social media, branding, events and PR. For over 20 years, she has helped companies from 12 countries get traction in the market. Known for her global and organic approach to product and corporate launches, Renee practices what she pitches and as an active user of social media, she helps clients navigate digital waters from around the world. Renee has been blogging for over 16 years and regularly writes on her personal blog Down the Avenue, Huffington Post, BlogHer, We Blog the World and other sites. She was ranked #12 Social Media Influencer by Forbes Magazine and is listed as a new media influencer and game changer on various sites and books on the new media revolution. In 2013, she was listed as the 6th most influential woman in social media by Forbes Magazine on a Top 20 List.
Her passion for art, storytelling and photography led to the launch of Magic Sauce Photography, which is a visual extension of her writing, the result of which has led to producing six photo books: Galapagos Islands, London, South Africa, Rome, Urbanization and Ecuador.
Renee is also the co-founder of Traveling Geeks, an initiative that brings entrepreneurs, thought leaders, bloggers, creators, curators and influencers to other countries to share and learn from peers, governments, corporations, and the general public in order to educate, share, evaluate, and promote innovative technologies.
