Michael Arens & Toon Vermeir: E-cube

Suppose you are starting to work and want your own place, Michael Arens and Toon Vermeir thought. Wouldn't it be great to build a cheap and easy sustainable house?

They developed the E-cube, a simple and affordable housing solution. It is powered by solar energy and can be built by anybody who succeeded constructing their Swedish furniture themselves. It only takes 10 students, and 24 hours, to bring the E-cube into place. And to be ready for the future, it's already solar energy-powered.

But what if you need more space - when the family is getting bigger or it's time to start a business from home? The E-cube is also prepared for that. It can be easily expanded to fit new requirements.

Photo via @Wimmmmm

TEDxGhent: the story on Storify

Here at TEDxGhent, we like to keep track of what we are doing. Of course you're following us at Facebook and Twitter (hashtag du jour: #TEDxGhent), but we also have our reporting on Storify, where we collect some of the best tweets and pictures.

The first stories are online:
sfy.co/k01t on the first half of the session 'City/Nature'
sfy.co/c0Ew covering the start of this amazing day

'Low Impact Man' Steven Vromman: A glimpse of the next world

Our first speaker just got off stage. 'Low Impact Man' Steven Vromman presented his quest to reduce his carbon emissions to the level of the average world citizen. 

He started with asking one minute of silence for the victims of our system of growth and consumption. Because we urgently have to find a way to live a good life with less resources.

How would the world look like if we would all do that, if we succeed to power ourselves with renewable energy and cut our carbon emissions?

Bikes and local food

We don't even to change too much in our habits. Some solutions are very simple. The bike is the means of transport for the future. Vromman is convinced the concept of a personal car is looking ridiculous in forty years.

But what do eat? We stay close to where we are. That means local food, organic food, less meat, seasonal products and an end to wasting food.

Finally, we'll have to change the way we are working. In this regard, Vromman quoted Tim Jackson: "We do work we don't like to buy stuff we don't need to impress people we don't like." How long is this sustainable?

Yes, Vromman admitted, this is going to change our lives. We are amongst the 10% richest people in the world. We will get less rich, but there will be many less poor people. And that is good for everybody. A future worth working for.

Our social media channels during the Meeting of Minds

Hello world!

Today, we will be posting some meaningful insights on the TEDxGhent "Meeting of Minds" through social media. Are you coming to the Meeting and do you wish to engage in the conversation? Stuck at home, but still interested in updates? Youc an consult several social media channels, listed below.

This blog: an overview of all conversations on TEDxGhent, complemented with longer posts on the speakers, venue, partners, etc.

Twitter: fast and witty updates. Follow us on @tedxghent, or take a look at the hashtag #tedxghent.

Facebook: regular status updates and photos. Like us at TEDxGhent.

Pinterest: photos, pictures, video - everything visual connected to TEDxGhent 2012. We will repin your posts tagged with #tedxghent. Stay tuned for innovative Pinterest thing going on during the Meeting of Minds.


Foursquare: check in at TEDxGhent 2012: "Meeting of Minds" to find your fellow 4sq'ers.

As from 9.00AM, our TEDxGhent microbloggers will give you the latest insights