Rick Genest aka Rico the Zombie shared his thoughts about being different in the The Avant/Garde Diaries. As a teenager Rick got diagnosed with a brain tumor. He got treatment and spent a long time waiting, not knowing what would happen. During this time Rick thought a lot about life, death and about himself as an individual person. At the age of 19 Rick started his full-body tattoo project and his own travelling freak show titled Lucifer’s Blasphemous Mad Macabre Torture Carnival. As Rick explains his focus now is to embrace life and to live day by day. Walking the catwalk or doing his freak shows are just two ways of living his live but not the only ones. “I embrace the idea of everything that’s different and helps people open their mind”. Whatever stage it is, Rick will keep going. “I will always be who I am and do what I do”.You can find more interesting talks from the The Avant/Garde Diaries here and their facebook fan page is packed with interesting behind the scenes material

Combining dry wit with artistic depth, Billy Collins shares a project in which several of his poems were turned into delightful animated films in a collaboration with Sundance Channel. Five of them are included in this wonderfully entertaining and moving talk — and don’t miss the hilarious final poem! A big thanks to George who brought it to my attention

Quite an informative deck by Freddie Laker

In a culture where being social and outgoing are prized above all else, it can be difficult, even shameful, to be an introvert. But, as Susan Cain argues in this passionate talk, introverts bring extraordinary talents and abilities to the world, and should be encouraged and celebrated.

Very interesting deck by @bbhlabs | @melex @jeremyet! Forget the hype surrounding the social web for a moment, what about something a little further out? This talk paints a picture of two possible futures, along the way asking the audience to help decide in 2012 if either has a snowball’s chance in hell of becoming a reality. Choose between: 1. Brands and users operate in a future-perfect environment of algorithm-driven, sublime relevance, where no nanobyte of data is wasted OR 2. Brands and their users seek to fight for discovery and serendipity. The presentation is missing a lot of text read more here

A very interesting deck by David Crandall