JOIN US'X' factor in an inspiring setting
TEDx is a licensed event and for a youth who is going to graduate this year it must have been a very challenging exercise.
“We had to apply for conducting this event way back in September last year and we got the license in January after being interviewed on Skype,” said the main organiser of TEDx SJCE, Mohammad Faraz.
Here a few students of Sri Jayachamarajendra College of Engineering (SJCE) are keeping it under wraps to unfold it on April 15. The idea of holding this event came to Faraz when they were participating in the IIT Madras Sarang Fest.
SJCE principal B G Sangameshwara has given them a free hand to conduct the event and this has given the team an added pep.
As two members had moved after passing out, new members had to be added.
The team led by Faraz includes Vybhav Prakash, Vikas Rao, Spoorthi Krishna, Rajat Bheemaiah, Sunaina Raju, Impana Srikantappa, Thanmay M Bindi and Dharshan Sanyal.
“TEDx is all about getting the right speakers. We zeroed in on nine of them and to see that it does not get too top heavy we have two child prodigies performing,” Faraz told City Herald.
Background on TEDx
But how exactly does TEDx happen?
“TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) grants licenses to third parties to organise TEDx events in cities around the world. These one-time only licenses are free, but franchisees must be approved by TED and adhere to strict set of rules including format, duration, number of invited guests, agreeing that in the all-day events at least 25 per cent of the total number of talks must be official, pre-recorded TED talks. Speakers are not paid and must agree to give TED the right to edit and distribute their presentation,” he said.
Ticketed event
The two child prodigies are Shadja Gorkhindi, 9, the flautist and Haris Imtiaz Khan, 12, the charcoal artist who created a world record last year.
“The theme includes education, film making, biology, social entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship, sci-tech and medicine and the speakers we have invited relate to the themes,” he said.
The thumb rule of TEDx event is that only 18 minutes is given to each speaker and as it is a ticketed event, attendees are restricted to 100 plus. It will be Rs 1,000 for outsiders and Rs 750 for the locals.
Past presenters
Past presenters in TED events (not TEDx) included the likes of Bill Clinton, Jane Goodall, Bill Gates, educator Salman Khan, Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. TED's current curator is British former computer journalist Chris Anderson.
“Earlier some names that cropped up included former President Dr A P J Abdul Kalam, Nandan Nilekani, Kiran Mazumdar, Sudha Murthy. Somehow they all gave reasons and for youngsters like us it would be difficult to accommodate such big names. We dropped the idea.
Now when Madhu Natraj a dancer and a speaker comes to share her ideas or Dr Satyabhama Das Biju (Frogman of India), Dr H Sudarshan Reddy ( Humanitarian), Pavan Sondur and Prashant Kumar(entrepreneur), Anshu Gupta(social entrepreneur), Stalin K Parma (film & theatre), Nitin Gupta (standup comedian), Shukla Bose (educationist),Dr Apoorva Patil (quantum computing), we are sure the ideas will be worth spreading,” said Faraz.