TED is one of the most exciting things I do, and as a creative director, I look forward to the insight and heart that's shared at this event. The theme this February 9 to 13 was "What the World Needs Now," which is, in truth, something of a rethink. There were 12 main sessions, in categories ranging from mindshift, imagination, invention, provocation and simplicity. Here's a highlight from TED 2010. In the words of Chris Anderson, "I invite you to immerse yourself in four days of outside-the-box thinking; to dream, to hope, to get just a little bit excited."

Chip Conley creates joyful hotels and what an extraordinary heart this hotelier has.  He creates intellectual, open-hearted discussion on caring not just for the customer, but his staff and investors, to help them realize their true potential.
chipconley.com

David Rockwell draws on his love of drama and spectacle to create fantastic, high-impact restaurants, malls, airline terminals, theater sets - and pop-up imagination playgrounds. I leave a mini set of his children's playground in the office for people to interact with, and learn.
rockwellgroup.com
imaginationplayground.org

Eve Ensler believes that there is a girl cell in all of us, and that girl has an astonishing strength. She created the ground-breaking Vagina Monlogues, whose success propelled to her found V-Day - a movement to end violence against women and girls everywhere. Talk about an iconic women's activist. When she engages and speaks, she brings the house down.
vday.org
Huffington Post

Jake Shimabukuro is on a mission to revolutionize our perception of the ukulele and make the world a more peaceful place. He's divine, and got and the new Eric from the last TED conference. He's also the spokesperson for Music is Good Medicine, a community outreach program that promotes healthy living through music.
jakeshimabukuro.com
musicisgoodmedicine.org
YouTube

TIME ON THE GROUND

Cité Soleil - the biggest slum near the airport. People live in the swamp. There are more children than adults. We left thinking, “What can we do?”

We invited ShelterBox to visit Cite Soleile and see the truth there. We got a group of young women together to bring food and water. Thank you Caroline Saga for caring for your own people and making an impact on these people’s lives. The intention was just beautiful. I reflect back to Urban Zen, and when Donna Karan speaks about community building. This is the essence of what she means.

Porte-au-Prince - the devastation, it was here to see. This is a different Haiti. The buildings and the dust feel like a war zone, as if bombs were dropped on the ground and left a desert of dust and death in its aftermath. There is nothing left. Truly my heart needs to repair.

At the top of the mountain is Fort National, were the military have their home base. There was nothing left, people sleeping in cars. I saw a woman, exhausted, sleeping on the top of her collapsed house. The homes, walls, and life are now crushed to the ground.

The Beginning of The Journey

Sonja Nuttall, the creative director of Urban Zen, and Marc Baptiste, a photographer and an Urban Zen friend, landed in Haiti on Saturday and went to 82nd and Airbourne. The stories they share via email, text and phone calls, range from heartbreak, to moments of beauty.

Sonja says, "For me the the most horrid story was the great fear of the rain, more disease, more sickness.... there is an overwhelming number people in one compound. The hospitals need more help, the doctors are doing everything they can... We were told by a nurse that there are problems with women being raped, they hear their screams at night. 

The government believes they are controlling things, but there is so much that needs to be done.  
This was our first day here.  Tomorrow is another day.  
Thank you Marc, God bless you."

Please check back. We'll continue updating this site with images and videos from Haiti.

"We can't walk away from this and lead our daily lives as if nothing had happened," Donna Karan immediately thought when she heard about the tragic earthquake in Haiti. "This is a wake-up call, a call to community, to caring, to something greater than ourselves."

Andre Harrell, an entertainment industry executive and founder of Uptown Records, heard the same call. "From the first moment I heard about the crisis in Haiti, I felt a sense of responsibility -- and the question: 'What can I do to help?' It sounds a little mystical but I felt like the universe was speaking to me," he said.

Harrell went through a typical day for him--high level meetings uptown, midtown and downtown in Manhattan. Later at the Boom Boom room, he connected with his friend, Andre Balazs at Balazs' elegant Standard Hotel. "We're great friends and I felt the urgency of finding a way to support him in supporting Haiti," Balazs explained. "This is an opportunity to take advantage of a tragedy to focus the world's attention on an ongoing crisis, and create a sustainable solution."

Before long, the two Andres reached out to Donna Karan, whose Urban Zen Center is just a few blocks away from the Standard.

"We have the passion to support Haiti, we have the dream of making a difference, but the question is how do we make it happen?" Karan asked when the powerhouse creative trio met to discuss partnering to bring together the New York art, music, fashion and entertainment worlds to kick off a benefit called Hope, Help, and Relief Haiti, slated for next Monday, February 8th.

Read rest of article on Huffington Post and comment here.