Malawian teenage Windmill maker dominates TED Talks

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At TEDGlobal 2007, participants were privileged to listen to great speakers give their well prepared talks in Arusha, Tanzania. And indeed, you'll agree with me when the videos get uploaded on web that they were great talks.

The sessions included both 18 minute talks and short 3 minute presentations by a diverse group of speakers including business leaders, artists, activists, engineers, inventors and musicians.

Among these was a 3 minute Question and Answer session where the curator Chris Anderson asked William Kamkwamba questions regarding the Windmill he created for his home in Kasungu, Malawi at the age of 14. Through the Questions with photos on the slides, William told his story which made people shed tears and later, give him a big applause and a standing ovation.

In the sessions that followed, William's story became the most cited talk among the talks at this conference. Speakers like Ory Okolloh of Kenyan Pundit, journalist Dele Olojede and Noah A. Samara of WorldSpace referred to William Kamkwamba's tale of invention in their sessions.

The picture above shows Ory Okolloh who included the photo of William's QnA session with Chris Anderson from the previous day in her slides.

Look out for the TED Talk videos from TEDGlobal 2007 when they're uploaded on TED's website.