The Art of changing minds – my TEDx Boca Raton talk – I bet I can change your mind! 

You’re a TED talk!

“You’re a TED talk” is what the lady tells me. I just sat down at Panera 5 minutes ago and am meeting Becky for the first time in my life. Someone had told me that we needed to meet – and I just started telling her how I got to make ‘On Wings of Hope‘ – my award winning documentary in Afghanistan. She interrupts me after a few minutes “You’re a TED talk” and I think to myself “Yeah. Sure I am.”

For those of you who don’t know, TED is a nonprofit devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short, powerful talks (18 minutes or less) given by thought leaders and top influencers in their field; people like Steven Hawkins, Tony Robbins, Al Gore, …  So you can see how I fit right into that line-up. NOT!

Strangely enough about a year later I find myself on the stage of FAU in Boca Raton, talking about ‘The Art of Changing minds” at Becky’s #TEDxBocaRaton event. Here is my TEDx talk as a wordle

I get to talk about the art of changing minds – or in my case how making a documentary about a humanitarian flight service (my kind of art) – changes minds. Now we’ve all seen a movie or read a book and had an emotional response to the story, but usually that’s anecdotal information. I for one have never had actual data on how my art changes minds. Until I show a rough cut of the movie at a local college and the faculty asked me, if they could poll the students before and after the movie. “Sure” I say “all I ask, is that one of the questions is ‘What do you think when you hear about Afghanistan.’” The results of this poll blew me away – check out the responses before the 15 minute film (the round wordle on the left) and compare them to the answers to the same question on the right! Incredible. A quarter of an hour and the opinions are reversed! That’s what I call the Art of changing minds.

Watch my TEDx talk “The Art of Changing Minds”

Check out my TEDx talk–it’s 6 minutes–and see if you agree with the three things you gotta have in place to create Art that changes minds … tell me what you think in the comments and please share this with your friends!