UW-Green Bay Professor and Associate Dean Ryan Martin (Psychology, CAHSS) can drop the “X”. His TEDx FondduLac Talk video presentation, “The Upside of Anger,” has officially moved to TED Talk status. That means the TED organization has recognized Martin’s presentation as one that should be spread nationally, and even globally!
TEDx FondduLac founder and license holder, Sarah Spang, shared the good news on March 20, 2019.
“Having an official TED Talk means that the idea given on the TEDx platform was so valuable that TED wanted to make it more easily accessible and available to all individuals around the world,” she said. “While all TEDx Talks are recorded and uploaded for worldwide viewing, a video being on TED.com is more easily searchable, is translated into more languages, and embodies the true spirit of TED’s ‘ideas worth spreading’ mission. For Ryan to have his Talk at this level shows the amount of work, research, and passion brought forth with his idea.”
Martin, the psychology chair and associate dean for UW-Green Bay’s College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, said having his talk get picked up by the TED organization was a “secret dream” but he didn’t really think it would happen. “I found out Novemberish that the talk was being considered for TED.com, but since I didn’t hear anything after that, I assumed it wasn’t happening.”
To be part of the TEDx and the TED process has deep value for Martin.
“I love what TED is all about,” he says. “To me, there is little more valuable than creating a space to share ideas (that’s why I work on a college campus). For years, I actually watched a TED talk every day and I’ve made some big life changes based on ideas that I took from them.”
Spang said that Martin’s talk is the first in the region to move to TED status.
“Ryan’s is the first TEDxFondduLac Talk to become an official TED Talk, the first for the Fox Cities region, and, I believe, the first for Wisconsin TEDx events,” she said. “To put the difficulty into better context: it’s someone’s job at TED to watch every single TEDx video that happens around the world. For an idea to stand out from the countless ideas being watched every day, that’s huge!”
Other speakers (Brene Brown, for example) have been launched into stardom because of their talk.
“The idea that people are watching it globally is both exciting and nerve-wracking,” Martin says. “I just hope people like it and feel like it’s personally valuable to them.”
Now that he could be on his way to international fame, Martin is moving into the next TED phase — he has been named a coach for the next TEDx UW-Green Bay, which had its inaugural program at the University’s Weidner Center in November of 2018. A call for speakers for the 2019 event will released soon.
“I’m really excited about being a coach this year,” Martin said. “My coach, Kristi Wilkum, was so important to me in the process of preparing my talk. She had great ideas and helped me work through a lot along the way. I’m happy to try and be that person for someone else.”
Photo submitted from TEDxFondduLac, Brian Kolstad photographer
