Last week, four members of the TEDxIIT team–Luling Li, Ethan Yujian Bai, Yoetzin Diaz and Shreeyeh Rajan—sat down to a radio interview at our very own radio station, WIIT 88.9 FM. After Luling booked an exclusive interview for TEDxIIT, we spoke at 1 pm on Tuesday, March 15, 2013. While Ethan was clicking photos away, Yoetzin and I talked about TED, TEDx, TEDxIIT and how to be a part of it. Being our first radio interview for all of us, it was nerve wracking in the beginning. But we ended up getting better with time! After hearing that Nik Rokop, managing director of the IIT Stuart Knapp Entrepreneurship Center, was going to speak, WIIT’s Tech Director Kevin M. Sampson told us he’ll definitely be there!
Collaborating with IIT Campus Life, TEDxIIT will also be presenting two events this month! One of our IIT advisers for TEDxIIT and photographer, Daniel Guidara is holding a Tai Chi workshop on March 14th 2013 from 6 to 7:30pm. Yes, you heard me right, Tai chi! How exciting is that? Tai Chi involves three aspects: Health, Meditation and Martial Arts. Personally, I think it’s a great way to take off your Midterms stress while learning Self Defense! Celebrating Women’s History Month, IIT Campus Life will be discussing gender, leadership, and stereotypes and how they intertwine in our everyday lives and feature a TED talk about gender and leadership during a discussion of Gender, Leadership and Stereotypes at 12:45pm on March 13th 2013 in the MTCC Executive Room.
After receiving confirmation emails from all the speakers, we are almost there! Let me give you an intake on how we selected the speakers. Students who nominated them gave a 3-minute presentation explaining why they should be nominated and how their idea is exponential. Then, each one of us read aloud their ideas and accomplishments to the rest of the team. After crucial examining and analyzing, the whole TEDxIIT team narrowed it down to twelve competitive speakers from twenty-four speakers.
Why is the selection process for the speakers so competitive? TED.com explains why. TED is “the place” to give the talk of your life. TED is the place to condense your ideas into a compelling 18-minute talk that communicates your best ideas. Other TED talks from around the world have included former U.S. President Bill Clinton, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, designer Phillipe Starck, architect Frank Gehry, primatologist Jane Goodall, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, , Lost producer JJ Abrams, architect and sculptor Maya Lin, cellist Yo Yo Ma and Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page.
With the pre-event around the corner, make sure to research our speakers so that you could pair up with them during the real event (aka apply to be a Speaker Buddy!). By helping out the speakers, you get to know more about them. And who knows? Fast forward five years and you might be working under them!