Lights. Camera. Action. TEDxColumbiaCollegeChicago, April 9 at The Getz

For 6+ months, myself and a team of 30 undergraduate and graduate students at Columbia College Chicago collaborated together to produce the 2nd annual TEDxColumbiaCollegeChicago conference. In the spirit of TED’s mission, “ideas worth spreading,” the TEDx program helps communities, organizations and individuals produce TED-style events at the local level. TEDx events are planned and coordinated independently, on a community-by-community basis, under a free license from TED. At TEDx events, a combination of TED Talks videos and live presenters and performers are organized to spark deep conversations and connections.

In a prior Marginalia post, I dissected the meaning of curation and gave a glimpse as to what that meant for myself as the Speakers Director for Columbia’s TEDx conference. Now that we’ve officially implemented and executed the 2016 conference, I want to share with you my biggest takeaways and an inside glance into this incredible experience.

Me coaching speaker Timothy Goodman during the tech rehearsal on April 8

I cannot express how imperative it is to build strong professional relationships with those whom you are collaborating with. As the Speakers Director, my position entailed securing and staying in contact with the speakers and performers for the live event. This meant that I needed to create a level of trust with each speaker and performer in order to curate the best possible talks and performances. I was fortunate in that those we secured were nothing but personable, hard-working, and passionate about spreading their ideas to the greater Chicago community.

Working with these individuals continuously inspired me to organize and facilitate an outstanding TEDx event, which motivated me to also build strong relationships with everyone involved on the TEDx team. Making this conscious effort resulted in minimal confusion and collaborative teamwork, resulting in a remarkable event.

Anthony Sturdivant, speaking about how he creates short films to encourage others to think before committing an act of violence

Because there are so many Columbia students involved in producing the TEDx conference, we have been established as a student organization. This gave us a huge competitive advantage of collaborating with several departments to elevate the live and live-stream events beyond our original conceptions. This included working with the Xerox Center to print our programs, partnering with the Theatre Design Department to ensure all of our production needs were met, uniting with Frequency TV to broadcast the entirety of the event for those unable to attend, joining forces with the Student Organization Council (SOC) for booking non-local speaker accommodations and assisting with all of our financing, and the Digital Print Center for fulfilling our remaining last-minute print jobs.

There were also several individuals with whom this conference would not have been as successful or possible. Those individuals that were especially of help include Jacki Licciardi, April Little, Cat Brommels, Dayle Matchett, Marc Chevalier, Grant Sabin and Josef Szaday.

Ana Belaval, discussing how speaking Spanish became her biggest asset in landing her dream job in the English broadcasting market.

Dr. Kim (the college’s president) and Columbia have been nothing but supportive of advancing the legacy of TEDx on Columbia’s campus. Words cannot describe how significant this has been throughout the entirety of producing the conference. Through a very generous donation, we were able to expand beyond the capacity of our original projected budget. This played a pivotal role in securing an equal mix of local and non-local speakers, ensuring that our TEDx event was spreading the highest caliber of ideas to the Columbia and greater-Chicago communities.

We also had a supportive faculty advisor, Bobby Biedrzycki, who was always available when needed throughout the entirety of event production. Robert Blandford was also of great assistance, particularly with giving both curatorial advice and overall moral support for myself and those on the TEDx team that were Business & Entrepreneurship graduate students. In short, the TEDx team has incredible support from both the college as well as from the Business & Entrepreneurship department.

Natya Dance Theatre, performing the opening set for the Live Event

In short, TED is an internationally-known brand. Having a license to host a TEDx conference at Columbia is a wonderful opportunity that B&E graduate students should take advantage of and become involved with. Regardless of your desired industry, this event allows students to become a part of something bigger than oneself. It’s motivating, inspiring and challenging all at once, and I hope to encounter another TED or TEDx experience in my future career endeavors.

That’s a wrap! The entire TEDxColumbiaCollegeChicago team on stage upon the conclusion of the conference