Meet Rich: TEDxSacramento Team Member, Creative Soul, and Artist with a Passion for the Here and Now

Note from editor: As a regular blog series, members of the faithful and talented TEDxSacramento team will be profiled, offering them a platform for their ideas worth spreading. These individuals make the TEDxSacramento stage possible, allowing our community to meet, mingle, and share stories of ourselves and others, fostering a strong community foundation in an effort to make the upcoming year the best yet.

By Lauren Herman

Rich Beckermeyer, TEDxSacramento volunteer, in the production booth.

Rich Beckermeyer, a member of the TEDxSacramento production team, is dedicated to art and the process of creativity - making the connection between reality and fantasy possible. He reminds us that reality is often more interesting than fantasy, and art is all around us. As a photographer, Rich aims to capture the story of everyday moments that are often overlooked and to capture his subjects' emotions in these moments. Perhaps that is why he is an ideal TEDxSacramento team member who inspires the unusual, the creative, and the power of ideas.

TEDxSacramento: Describe yourself in four words or less.

Rich: A documentarian of life. I seek to find stories and tell these stories.

TEDxSacramento: How long have you volunteered for TEDxSacramento, and what is your role at TEDxSacramento?

Rich: I have volunteered with TEDxSacramento for about 4 years as a member of the production team. It entails a variety of things, including shooting, producing, and editing the videos of the TEDxSacramento talks. My work is often well beyond that, but those are the primary tasks of the production team.

TEDxSacramento: Why do you volunteer with TEDxSacramento?

Rich Beckermeyer at TEDxSacramento "This Changes Everything: Seeds of Change" in September 2014.

Rich: My motivation for volunteering with TEDxSacramento is connecting with other creative individuals and being part of the Sacramento community that understands creativity is an important part of the economy and artistic expression. I really wanted to start TEDx in Sacramento when I first moved here because I was inspired by the videos I watched during college. Then, I found out that one was already started, so I thought if I can’t start it then I should join it.

TEDxSacramento: What, in your opinion, is Sacramento's best-kept secret?

Rich: The best-kept secrets of the Sacramento region are its parks. I often go to Ancil Hoffman Park, River Bend Park, and American River Parkway. Nature has always been an integral part of myself, allowing me to recharge, re-energize by hiking through woods, finding a great spot on the river or climbing to the top of hills. These experiences are important because it is so different than where I am from where everything is linear -- flat that seems to go on forever.

TEDxSacramento: What is your favorite TEDxSacramento talk?

Rich: My favorite TEDxSacramento talk so far is Lisa Donchak’s talk “The game theory/ultra running connection” about ultra running – the sport of running 100 miles within 24 hours. The exercise aspect of it inspires me. She shows that a person is made of mind, body and spirit. You have to feed all three parts to be whole, so life without exercise is not balanced. The choice to continually push oneself to finish is an important lesson.

Lisa Donchak’s TEDxSacramento talk, “The game theory/ultra running connection”

TEDxSacramento: If you have the opportunity to speak on the TED stage, what would be your idea worth spreading?

Rich: Even though it has been talked about before, my idea worth spreading would be about creativity. Creativity can be found anywhere and used with all types of technology. Technology should be used as a tool to spread your creativity.

TEDxSacramento: How or where can others connect with you?

Rich: Twitter: @leland_beck and Instagram: @rb_visuals

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Calling Sacramento Social Media Mavens

Are you a TED/TEDx fanatic? Do you have "a following"? Would you like free tickets to our next TEDx event?  Just complete our social media maven webform and include relevant links.

Why Social Media Mavens

We’re looking for social media mavens who want to attend our TEDxCity2.0 event this Friday evening who can help document it on blogs, twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Basically, we want you to work your social media magic!

TEDxCity2.0 isn’t just about holding an event; it’s about igniting your local community around what’s going on in our city.

Winners will help us build buzz in the last few days before the event and during the event itself. They will receive 2 VIP tickets (a $170 value).

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Top Five Reasons Why We Heart May is Bike Month (MiBM)

As we round the last bend on May is Bike Month, and approach our annual event in June, we give a rollicking high-five to the two-million mile challenge of MiBM. So feel free to ride on and read on, River City…

If you’ve ever imagined a world filled with sunny days, whistling, and free-wheeling cyclists everywhere you turn, you may have been humming “It’s a Beautiful Day” by the Beach Boys. The dreamy tune includes lyrics about “freeways… jammed with all kind of folks on their bikes… doin' their lefts and their rights.”

It’s exactly this visionary sentiment (and proper use of hand signals) that we here at TEDxSacramento embrace and which compel us to grab MiBM by the handlebars. Here are the top five reasons why we love the ride:

1.       Did Someone Say Bike Crawl?

We did! We did! Last Second Saturday, a gaggle of TEDx enthusiasts gathered in front of the Bicycle Kitchen and made our way around town en force, stopping at Hot Italian, Red Rabbit and Low Brau for refueling and spirited conversation.

Hoots, hollers and ringing bells helped get us to our final destination: an empty space right next to Low Brau in the MARRS building, where we set up a large screen, a projector and pushed “play” on TEDTalks that ranged in topic from ninja yo-yo’ing to tiny flying robots. People stared and that was exactly our plan.

2.       Cycling-Centered TEDTalks

As TEDx Speaker Mikael Colville-Andersen says: “The good life is one on a bike.” In this TEDxCopenhagen Talk, the Speaker likens people on two wheels to “a symphony of human powered movement across the cityscape.” One TEDTalk is worth a thousand pictures, no?

3.       The Lovely Aroma of Team Spirit

Over here, we give a standing ovation to the two-million mile challenge presented by MiBM and all those who have engaged their quads in participation. To help our region celebrate success, we formed our own TEDxSacramento MiBM team and encourage you, yes you, to jump on your fixie, tandem or Penny-farthing.  

4.       Get the Heart Pumping

Biking can incinerate as many as 900 calories an hour. Of course, for most of us, it’s more like 300 and that’s..OK. While being totally engrossed at a TEDx event may burn slightly fewer calories, we are pretty sure it can cause your ventricle to skip a beat or two and perhaps even lead to a heart-pounding love affair. It already has for about 10,000 River City dwellers. See below…

5.       Community to the Power of “x”

Like MiBM, TEDxSacramento is a rapidly growing idea that’s attracting some of the brightest minds around. No, we’re not just saying that. Local author and Sacramento Bee reporter Chris Macias says:

[My] idyllic vision of Sacramento is where 20th & K St. shuts down daily for public yoga marathons and TEDx speeches, and where a newly established farmers’ market police gives citations for not buying produce within 100 miles. Also, there will be hella basketball.

So now the ball’s in your court. Find your community on our Facebook  and get in your application now to our June 28th annual event.  Hemming and hawing about this will lead one directly to kicking oneself in the backside. (And that hurts worse than a banana seat.)

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