Thursday night, I attended my first FRED talks, a fun local event hosted by Santa Monica resident Steve Glenn. He modeled the monthly event after the TED talks, which he has attended for several years and participated in at the Long Beach TED talks in 2009. [If you aren’t familiar with TED talks, you can check them out and watch a few HERE. You can watch Steve’s talk HERE.]

What a great idea. Invite lots of smart, creative, interesting, do-goody folks from around the area into your (amazing pre-fab Living Homes) home for a potluck dinner, drinks and thought-provoking talks. Each month, anyone invited to the event can propose a talk subject and then entertain and inform the crowd for 8 minutes, with a 3-minute question-and-answer session, which follows.

Unlike in previous months, Thursday’s talks were themed. It’s December. And the season of giving. So each speaker was a representative from a non-profit, each one of them more inspiring than the next. I can’t wait to get involved with Global Girl Media, which helps young women around the world find their voices through journalism and storytelling, and Young Storytellers, a group that mentors young kids in the Los Angeles area through the writing and performing of plays.

The women from Saving Innocence, an organization that is tackling the issue of child sex trafficking in southern California and working to decriminalize prostitution by children, were inspiring. Ernest from the Hollywood Farmers Kitchen was entertaining and made me want to learn how to can my own food. Omar from LARiverCorp.org made me want to spend more time exploring my city and Maryam Henein, the director of the documentary Vanishing of the Bees, was passionate and caused me to spend more time than I ever thought I would researching the disappearance of American honey bees online.

Such a fun, wonderful event. I can’t wait for next month!