Have you ever wondered what it was like to live in a time when live music was as commonplace as smartphones? Or ever considered that one of the founding fathers could be thought of as a data nerd?
Information is power. That’s what TEDxWilmingtonSalon celebrated as part of Delaware Innovation Week 2016 at the Wilmington Public Library on Thursday. The event series is organized by Ajit George, whom we profiled earlier this month.
Check out some of the highlights below.

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A doomy take on music

Instead of keeping to the normal TEDx routine, Vincent James, founder of Keep Music Alive, played a few songs on his keyboard.
“We hear music every single day of our lives and maybe, just maybe that’s why we take it for granted,” James said.
But the quality of music is in danger, James said. He went on to discuss what he calls the three disturbing trends that are killing the future of music.
First is music education. He asked: have you noticed that schools across the country are cutting music and arts education programs while many others are still greatly reducing them? The second trend is the switch from people buying mp3s and CDs to now listening to music almost exclusively via streaming services like Spotify and Pandora.
Lastly, he talked about live music. It wasn’t long ago when hotels, restaurants and every other hospitality business offered some form of live music on the weekends.

What your momma never told you about childbirth

Childbirth can be an amazing experience, Marianne Ryan told the audience, remembering how excited she was when she first found out she was pregnant. Ryan has over 30 years experience treating pregnant and postpartum women in her Manhattan-based practice.
But she did reveal a few downsides to the pregnancy process: “Along with excitement can come some physical problems that can become permanent, like back pain, a leaky bladder and a flabby tummy.” Ryan said.

One of the earliest data geeks

“I want to encourage you all to laugh at me,” Shahid Shah said. “Now it doesn’t sound nice but Arthur Clarke said that if you’re laughing at me while I’m making these predictions than I’m doing something right.”
Not many people laughed, but there were a few that could be heard in the audience. Known as “The Healthcare IT Guy” across the internet, Shah is an Silver Spring, Md.-based health IT entrepreneur and speaker.
“Thomas Jefferson was one our earliest data geeks,” Shah said. “He was actually taking notes by taking temperature measurements on a regular basis in journals and most importantly, sharing them.”