What if we did a mashup of a summertime backyard barbecue and TEDxSanAntonio, oh yeah, and what if we also threw in some great blues music by local musicians?
Answering that question was at the heart of our first ever TEDxSanAntonio Blues & BBQ Salon event last Saturday, August 19th. I’m happy to report that more than 200 people braved the South Texas heat and turned out to listen to our seven Speakers and Musicians do their thing on the stage at Burleson Yard Beer Garden.
If you were there, thank you for taking a chance on us trying something new. We put a lot of effort into planning this event but because virtually everything we tried was new it was an incredible learning experience. We have quite a few lessons learned noted, but we don’t want to presume that we’ve thought of everything. If YOU have feedback (good, bad or ugly) or suggestions (big or small), I would greatly appreciate it if you would please share it with me. Drop me an email at sandoval@tedxsanantonio.com and we’ll take it into account as we plan future events.
Huge thanks go out to:
- Elijah Zane: Thanks for the BLAZING set of blues and the powerful talk about The Meaning of Blues.
- Emilio Soliz, Pitmaster, Kings Highway BBQ: Thanks for the excellent talk about The Three Elements of BBQ: smoke, time and family.
- B.R. Anderson, Owner of B-Daddy’s BBQ: Thank you for your informative and entertaining talk about The Five Commandments of the BBQ Business.
- Daniel Vaughn, Texas Monthly BBQ Editor: Thank you for enlightening the audience on the not-so-simple story of which Texas BBQ joint really is the oldest.
- John Cockerell, Blues Musician: Thanks for the excellent primer on the South Texas connection to the Mississippi Delta blues and also for playing some outstanding and authentic Delta blues.
- Jim Beal, Blues Writer and Radio Host: Thank you for expanding our thinking about classic blues musicians beyond just the usual names we hear about all the time.
- Miss Neesie & the Tin Can Trio, Roots Band: Thanks for closing the show with some rollicking and fun roots and blues music – I love how a passing train joined the band for a song!
Thanks to our sponsors and partners:
- Ranger Creek Brewing & Distilling: really excellent beer and outstanding whiskey (the .36 is my personal fav!)
- Burleson Yard Beer Garden: their team was an absolute pleasure to work with. Thanks for going the extra mile for us in so many ways. Thanks Lee (and team)!
- The Social Llama: THE BEST way to find fun stuff to do in San Antonio every single week!
- San Antonio Blues Society: they connected us with John Cockerell and we love their mission.
- San Antonio Sound Garden: thanks for introducing us to Elijah Zane, he was AWESOME!
- Geekdom: Geekdom provides TEDxSanAntonio with space to meet and work. I’m sure they can do the same for you.
- Kings Hwy Brew-n-Cue: your sliders were a HUGE hit! Cole slaw on a BBQ sandwich: it’s definitely a thing!
- Dignowity Meats: thanks for everything throughout the process and especially for indulging me personally and bringing your awesome mac and cheese!
Huge debt of gratitude to all of our volunteers!
TEDxSanAntonio is an all volunteer organization (even me!) and dozens of volunteers came together to make this event happen. I want to call special attention to a handful of volunteers who went the extra mile for this event.
- Kelly Strait: Kelly was my co-organizer for this event and did most of the heavy lifting. Her contributions to TEDxSanAntonio and this event in particular are invaluable.
- Scott Lefton: Scott produced this event as well as recruiting and organizing the A/V team. He’s been a TEDxSanAntonio volunteer for a few years and we’re so grateful for his service.
- Judy Cotter (and family!): Judy and family were instrumental in organizing the check-in process and helped get everyone in the door quickly. Thank you Judy!
- Phil and Juliana Kang: thank you for also stepping up and helping with the check-in process!
- Jonathan Stovall: Jon is TEDxSanAntonio’s Creative Director and his design work for this event was among my favorite ever. Thanks Jon!
- Dozens more! We’d love to have YOU join us for a future event as a volunteer.
We’re off and running towards our Main event on Saturday, November 18 at The Witte Museum Mays Family Center – we really hope to see you there!