#hugcampaign on Valentine's Day

[More preliminary photos on our Facebook album: http://on.fb.me/hugonfacebook]

It started as a late lunch conversation on Feb 13th, 2011 about the idea of spending time with friends from TEDxJakarta on Valentine's Day. Lalitia (tw: @lalitia), our co-curator, twitted that friends should come and we would hug one another.

The twit was retwitted, and someone put a hashtag #hugcampaign. Hundreds of twits and retwits later, in the span of four hours, it was officially a trending topic. One major radio channel (Cosmopolitan 90.4 FM) suddenly called in asking for a 7:45am interview the following day on this hug campaign. The law of unintended consequences and the power of twitter in Indonesia had spoken: we were going to give hugs to ALOT of people and it psyched the living day out of us. 

In the span of less than twenty-four hours, we managed to get the top management of Pacific Place Mall (the mall caught in action) to agree (into taking risk) with our rather non-conventional activity. In a relatively conservative and religious country like Indonesia, any form of public display of affection is a sensitive issue. We engaged @America (venue at the mall) to allow us use their space for pre-gathering and our "Board of Compassion". We brought in the videographers and the volunteers.

So on Valentine's day - we held a FREE HUG campaign to share warmth and compassion with others , especially strangers. 

TEDxJakarta believes compassion, toward loved ones, friends, acquaintances and strangers, is an idea worth spreading. Recently, we've been bombarded with domestic news of violence related to religion. This has left the country as a whole feeling unsettled and tired. This year, TEDxJakarta plans to incorporate the Charter of Compassion in our agenda and promote the charter's initiatives proactively. The viral video from this #hugcampaign will kickstart our initiative. 

In the few hours we were there putting our arms out, we were surprised by the response. A girl came and hugged saying "I am alone on Valentine's day". An elderly gentleman walked up with teary eyes, hugged, said "Thank you", and walked away quietly. A little boy ran up to us happy and of course we had plenty of group hugs.

We did it to share compassion, warmth and presence with others. However, we also did it for ourselves. We were reminded of what's possible and the humanism that still exists strong if we bothered to look. 

At the end of the night, we were literally High on Hugs. It was the most amazing experience. 
Thank you @pacificplace @atamerica and @TEDxJKT team for making it possible. 

Happy Valentine's Day TEDx Community. 

Contributed by: 

Benson Engelbert

Co-curator, TEDxJakarta (www.tedxjkt.org)
tw: @bensonengelbert 

TEDxJakarta - SomeThink Different

TEDxJakarta is a TEDx event/community in Jakarta, Indonesia. As one of the earlier TEDx licensees, the organizing team  (http://www.tedxjkt.org/team/) has seen the community grew exponentially over the past two years. 

Our last  event, on December 19th, 2010 , was dedicated to encourage attendees to visualize things differently and to act proactively in their respective communities to bring about progress and positive change. The event drew a full house of more than 450 people and received overwhelming media coverage.

The 3.5 minutes overview of the event can be found here: (http://on.fb.me/tedxjkt6)

It left an unforgettable impression and a TED 'High' feeling like none other, as this attendee's blog post (http://bit.ly/fGOzsc) aptly described the day as "Simply explosive."  

In the first session - Visualize - Chandra Tresnadi shared his efforts to re-popularize Batik (one of Indonesia's most treasured heritage) through the use of social, interactive, and touch-screen digital technologies.

Adi Panuntun, known for his video-mapping project of Museum Fatahillah, spoke about 'design-thinking' as an agent of change. He moved away from his film-making conventions to project a jaw-dropping video on to public buildings and museums to promote awareness for the lack of public space in Jakarta and to bring the 'cool' back to museums. 

In the second session - Act - Sanggar Roda, a community that brings together street and marginalized kids from East Jakarta and teaches them non-formal music education, entertained everybody with 3 great songs using basic musical instruments. They received a standing ovation from the whole auditorium.  

Betti Alisjahbana, former CEO of IBM Indonesia, talked about a scholarship program that hunts proactively for bright children from very poor families and give them the opportunity to attend the country's best schools with bridging programs that include soft-skills building courses. 

Anies Baswedan, rector of Paramadina University gave an update of Indonesia Mengajar (Indonesia Teaches), a program that sends Indonesia's best and brightest to the country's most remote areas, often without electricity, to teach for a year. 

Rene Suhardono, career coach and author of “Your Job is Not Your Career,” urged attendants to reconsider their conceptualization of happiness and passion. 

In 2011 - the team has prepared a great series of events which include TEDxJakartaLive this March 5th and a Best of TEDxJakarta event. We plan to hold 4 events this year. 

Contributed by: 

Benson Engelbert
Co-Curator , TEDxJakarta

www.tedxjkt.org 
benson@tedxjkt.org
tw: @bensonengelbert