Matthias Hollwich, co-founder of Hollwich Kushner (HWKN), a NYC-based architecture and concept design firm—at TEDXEast.

“Creativity is exhaustion, and one idea beyond that;” this is how globally renowned architect Matthias Hollwich closed his 2012 TedXEast (TED NYC) talk.  Matthias’ speech was focused on sharing his team’s exhaustive creative process in coming up with the perfect architectural concept for the Moma PS1 Young Architectural International Program. At Nau, we understand this. Taking an unconventional and unexpected approach to business and product design can be exhausting, but always worth it.

TEDxEast is one of the 800+ independently organized TED events. Ranked as one of the top five independent events globally, NYC Ted 2012 did not disappoint. At Nau, we’ve always admired the innovative thinking and influential speakers that these top tier events attract. And this past year we were given the opportunity to began supporting TED Long Beach and now TEDxEast through creative sponsorships.

The event theme of this year’s TedXEast was “A View from In Here,” and through four sessions (the Right Brain, the Left Brian, From the Inside Out, and Reframe), 30 speakers were given 18 minutes to give the most important talk of their life. Our lovely host, Julianne Wurm, referred to the day as being “an emotional journey.” And she was right. One of Nau’s fundamental beliefs has been to use business as a force for positive change – it was inspiring to see how many of these speakers are also using business, science, medicine or theatre to make this type of impact.

NYC has the power to draw fantastic individuals, with speakers coming from around the world.  Some standouts included Maya Lin (artist and architect), Dr. Pasi Sahlberg (global school improvement activist), Dr. Colin Campbell (40+ years of being on the forefront of nutrition research and links to cancer), Matthias Hollwich (architect), and Cassandra Lin (13 year old entrepreneur who founded project TGIF – turning grease into fuel), among many many others.

TedXEast talks can be viewed here. We hope you enjoy as much as we did.