The coffee shop effect | Rohit Menon | TEDxMSU

Rohit believes that place has meaning to people, even if they don't know it yet. Using the lens of his research in the Greater Lansing area, he explains how spaces like coffee shops are indicators - and breeding grounds - for upward social change.

To paraphrase a professor that taught him a few years ago, Rohit is 'always in search of utopia. Tell him to stop searching. It doesn't exist'. Rohit has not stopped searching yet. Trained as an architect from India and studying as a graduate student at MSU, he has lived, worked and played in search of a brighter tomorrow. This outlook has taken him to the further reaches of understanding how physical places and people interact.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx