Yashaswini Rajeshwar
What to Tim Berners-Lee, Harisha Bhogke, Bonom Melinda French Gates, Gordon Brown and james Cameron have in common? They do not share a commom nationality, they do not share a profession and they do not come from similar backgrounds either. Yet, there is a common bindinf thread about them. They have all, been speakers are a TED/TEDx event. (We will come to the difference soon.)
Worthy Ideas
TED is an non-profit organization that focuses on ‘ideas worth spereading’. Started in 1984, TED began by brining together people from three worlds – Technology, Entertainment and Design. Now TED helps to ensure that good deeds or inspiring acts happening in one part of the world don’t stagnate.
Instead, it has ensured that every individual, no matter in which inaccessible corner of the world he/she lives in, can have free access to some of the best orators of today, largely through the award winning TED talks video site. All you need is an internet connection and speakers!
What started as a conference in Long Beach and Palm Springs in the US and Oxford, the UK, is now all over the world. This has become possible thanks to what is known as the TEDx conferencecs.
In spirit and aim, they are all the same. The only difference being that the mysterious ‘x’ denotes that the event is independently organised. the original TED in the IS issues licenses to individuals to conduct their own TED events, irrespective of the geographical location. Basically, TEDx allows you to have the TED experience in your own locality without having to travel to California or Oxford for their annual conferences.
In Chennai
But why all this information now? TEDxYouth@Chennai is in town on November 20. This being International Youth Day, a significant section of the organising committee as well as a majority of the audience are students. It offers them the experience of being a part of an international level event as well as a chance to interact with eminent personalities from different walks of life like education, social work, entrepreneurship, history.
The best part is that there will be no rambling talks and bored to death audiences. Each speaker will convey their thoughts in just 18 minutes, long enough to say something of significance but short enough to prevent loss of attention.
A TEDx event means different things to different people. A networking opportunity, the possibility of being a part of an event of international repute, the chance to meet celebrities in their own right.. but more often than not, an experience of a lifetime!
TEDxYouth@Chennai promises to be everything that a TED event is with a dash of namma Chennai flavour. November 20 is definitely not going to be your average Sunday. For more details, visit www.tedxyouthchennai.com
