No this is not a post about the satirical sitcom about corporate life, Better of Ted. It is a post about a better kind of Ted.

Yesterday I attended TEDxAustin again, in it's second year as an independently organized event here in Austin, Texas. Both years I have left feeling I was better off for having devoted a Saturday to attend this event in person. Part of what makes it a worthwhile experience is being there with a community of interesting people from all walks of life in Austin...some old friends and many new faces. This year the audience size grew from 300 to 550 with the move to the Austin Music Hall.

The first year of TEDxAustin was life changing for me. I became Vegan and have stuck with it after hearing Rip Esselstyn speak. I have been fighting hormone issues and endometriosis for over a decade and am now convinced that food sensitivities triggered much of it. One of the speakers this year, Robyn O'Brien convinced me of that further yesterday when she covered the timeline of when they started introducing growth hormones into the US food supply particularly into our dairy supply so that cows would produce more milk. I used to be a heavy dairy eater, in fact that was one of the hardest things to give up in my diet and my issues started about a year after this became common practice. Though I found Robyn's presentation interesting, it was less life changing for me since I had already drastically changed my diet. It validated a lot of what I had already figured out on my own.

This year, it was Flint Sparks who had the message I needed to hear right now. As those of you who know me well, my professional and personal life is fast-paced 24/7 whirlwind. I love what I do, but leading a global team, I am often in virtual meetings from early in the morning until late at night making myself available when my local teams are there to meet with me. As part of the demand programs we run, in addition to digital marketing and traditional campaigns, we also plan and execute over 300 events a year around the world. For those of you who have ever had anything to do with event planning, you know what a pressure cooker that can be. It also puts me on the road frequently to speak or run an event. Because of my passion for Social Media, I also serve on the board for Social Media Club as the Vice President of the local chapter. I love how much our local club has grown and thrived in the last year and this in itself is rewarding. We are the second largest chapter in the world and with our new home in the old Austin City Limits Soundstage at KLRU in the UT Communications building, which was also the site of the first TedXAustin, we will now have space for 300 people and will not need to turn people away from our waitlist for meetings.

Flint is a s a Zen teacher and psychologist and his message was simple, but hit home with me at a time when I needed it most. His message was that we really did need to take the time to Pause. Reflect. Connect. To sit in active consciousness daily, open my mind and it would actually help me realize the state I want to reach instead of living in the moment and tuning out to what my heart and my head are telling me. I plan to put this into practice in my daily life....wish me luck. 

I enjoyed many of the speakers, connecting with the community and also enjoyed sharing the day this year with the man I have shared over 20 years of my life with and experiencing it together. This was Dan's first year to attend. Many thanks to the speakers and conference organizers as I know what hard work it is to pull off a first-class event. I am definitely better off right now....