Actually, we were tipped on Friday afternoon of what we think is a new milestone in the record of premier conference revelatory moments – an apparently impromptu wedding ceremony on the stage of eg – the Entertainment Gathering.
Conference participants reported that Bill Nye the Science Guy and his fiancé were wed on the conference stage with “Purpose-Driven” Pastor Rick Warren presiding and accompanied by wedding music performed by YoYo Ma on Cello (naturally) and Mike Hawley on piano!
The eg nuptial moment followed some urging on from long time conference impresario and host Richard Saul Wurman, who in his years of producing TED became famous for summoning sensational “TED moments” – spontaneous revelatory sparks of understanding instantly felt throughout the audience.
But conference-goers said the wedding scenario had apparently brewed up over a Friday lunchtime conversation between Pastor Rick, Nye and Nye’s fiancé – the couple had only known each other a short while and yet were engaged.
The pastor is known for The Purpose Driven Life, the best-selling book of our age and with more than 20 million copies sold and at a current pace of a million copies a month is rapidly closing in on Dr. Spock and the Bible on the all-time bestsellers list. He is also a skilful preacher with a seductive message.
Now on the conference circuit, Warren recounted at Aspen Institute’s IdeasFestival last July how he’d persuaded a high-ranking Communist Party official to convert to Christianity extremely publicly, almost on the spot. Nonetheless, Warren’s prostheletizing tone makes some listeners extremely uncomfortable.
Apparently the lunchtime conversation resulted in a number of attendees encouraging the couple to tie the knot on the spot. So, at the start of the afternoon session Wurman called Nye to the stage and also goaded him to go through with the ceremony, which Nye agreed to do.
As they had no wedding rings, Nye used her engagement ring, and she gave him a watch. No sooner had Nye kissed the bride than Hawley and YoYo Ma struck up their wedding music.
Nye, a one-time Boeing Co. engineer whose penchant for explaining things scientific led him to a career in television as "Bill Nye the Science Guy", had earlier addressed the gathering, describing how a life-long fascination with sun dials had caused him to convince NASA scientists to back sending one on an expedition to Mars.
Convened at the Skirball Cultural Center north of Los Angeles after a four-year hiatus since selling the TED Conferences to Chris Anderson’s Sapling Foundation. “Nye seemed genuinely stunned by the whole thing,” reported attendee David Hornik of August Capital and Ventureblog
Sam
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