Remember me posting about TEDxCLE: The Maker Class? Well I didn’t get tickets and was totally bumming. But due to the fact that I have an awesome job and awesome coworkers, I was able to go to my first TEDxCLE and support some awesome, inspiring Cleveland peeps.

First off, hats off to shark&minnow on a job well done. Great speakers and great venue.

Quick wrap-up on some of my favorite:

From NASA: Tom Benson. Here’s what I loved – he talked about being a creative person and he’s not in the “typical” creative field. His ten characteristics of being a creative person: expertise, enviornment, timing, synthesis, ah-ha, guts, persistent, luck, interests, muse. A great reminder to all of us – creative field or not – you are going to encounter resistance. It’s all about being persistent though.

My most favorite – Dar Caldwell. I love people with great big ideas that most of us would never even dream of and definitely would never have the balls to follow through with. I love the passion and I love the love for the city of Cleveland and entrepreneurs that our city has. And we have some amazing ones. Valerie Mayen. Chris Hodgeson. As a community – what can we do to help these people who are willing to take a risk and do something completely different.

Another favorite: Mort Epstein. If you’ve been in the city of Cleveland anytime in the last oh, 30 years, you’ve seen some of Mort’s artwork. It’s innovative, colorful and creative. As a girl who loves design, it was so awesome to hear his stories behind the art.

It was pretty much a fabulous Friday last Friday thanks to this event. Be sure to keep your eyes open for some of the talks when they go online.