The Voices of TEDxPasadenaWomen

When asked if I would design and produce an interactive experience for the first TEDxPasadenaWomen Conference, I hesitated for all of about .0037 seconds before responding “Yes!” followed by, “Wait. What exactly would you like me to do?”

I think I was told something like, “the theme of the conference is ‘Momentum,’ and we’ll have access to some audio recording equipment.” That was about as defined as the experience was when I jumped on board.

“Cool, I’m in.”

Heather Brunold, the conference’s Manager of Social Spaces, was in charge of our particular contribution to the conference, and she led a small team tasked with coming up with something interesting, relevant, and inspiring. The group consisted of volunteers from the Institute for Girls’ Development (Vicki Chiang, Psy.D. Clinical Psychologist, Lauren Guarino, and Hannah Kessel)  and Kamille Soler.

Momentum Team: Vicki, Lauren, Hannah, & Heather

In a few short weeks, we crafted a multimedia installation that encouraged attendees to lend their words and voices to a curated collection of observations and advice about women and the worlds they influence.

What we delivered to TEDx was an experience called the Momentum Project: A Formula for Female Forces (Mass x Velocity = Momentum), and it invited attendees to answer the following questions:

1) “Mass” – What gives you stability and confidence?

2) “Velocity” – What inspires you?

3) “Momentum” – What advice do you have for the next generation of women to help propel them forward?

Attendees could respond in two ways:

* Wisdom Pins – attendees could write down their responses and pin them on one of the mannequins outside the whisper recording booths.

* Momentum Memos – attendees could step into one of the recording booths so we could capture their response as a short audio.

I’m not sure what I expected, but I was truly inspired by how the experience turned out at the May 30th, 2015 conference. We collected dozens of audios, and all three mannequins were covered by the end of the day:

I’ve given TEDxPasadenaWomen and The Institute for Girls Development some ideas about how they can use the audios (string together random “formulas” of audio wisdom, create transcripts for posting on their website, create “word” videos, etc.). Looking forward to seeing how they use all the amazing insights collected that day and share the momentum of that day.

Can’t end this post without a few personal shout outs.

First up  is Jeanne Chung, a female force of reckoning in her own right and a designer extraordinaire who oversaw the design of the conference space.

Second is the Institute for Girls’ Development, an amazing group doing amazing and important work.

Institute for Girls’ Development