First Peek into TEDxBeaconStreet 2016
Last week, a group of diverse individuals gathered together to share their stories. Fifteen speakers introduced their passions, voiced their impact, and established their call to action. These speakers included MIT PhDs, professors, journalists, athletes, and more. Some of our speakers have acted in low-budget horror movies, hiked with Peter Hillary in Antarctica, and backpacked all over Patagonia. One even helped organize a 1000+ member human rights march!
Speaker Catalysts of all different backgrounds gathered to give feedback, critique pitches, and support our speakers. To ring in TEDxBeaconStreet’s fifth year, here are FIVE topics our amazing speakers tackled:
Journalism
Boston Globe Spotlight member Matt Carroll, who was portrayed in the 2015 movie Spotlight, wants to educate us on the sheer impact of investigative journalism and how it can positively influence society. Rob Cocuzzo, an author at Nantucket magazine, illustrated the power of journalism through his exploration of what it means to feel connection through conversation and experience with his childhood role model, one of the best skiers of all time.
Sports
An unlikely connection formed between Matt’s pitch and 13-year-old Hunter Henderson, the #3 freestyle slope skier in the U.S. Hunter expressed what competing in an extreme sport means to him, and was guided by supportive listeners to consider what he wants his take-away to be.
Ethics
Deloitte Business Analyst Jiten Dajee and Harvard professor Chris Robichaud both shared their interests in philosophy and ethics. Jiten called for cross-disciplinary education, with an emphasis on incorporating philosophy and ethics into the standard curriculum. Professor Robichaud discussed his interest in moral theories and how we can better teach ethics and put principles into action.
Technology
We heard a number of fascinating pitches on the future of technology. Deblina Sarkar discussed the magnitude of difference between brain power and computer power. Sebastian Lourido explained his work with infectious disease at the Whitehead Institute of Molecular Biology through the lens of both personal experience and the global impact. Pitichoke Chualapamornsri is frustrated with cities being unable to accommodate their community members and suggested we weave technology like Uber and Expedia with lasting civic engagement and change. Neil Gupta, a pioneer for VR and AR at Draper Laboratory, moved away us away from the technical side of things and instead addressed success, failure, and the perils of swimming upstream in an increasingly competitive world.
Human Rights
Liz Powers and Crystal Emery each addressed the marginalization of different groups. Liz is the Co-Founder of Art-Lifting, a program intended to give homeless individuals an opportunity they wouldn’t usually have — selling their own art. She gave a passionate pitch about her experiences with these individuals and opened the discussion of what other talents can be adapted for social change. Crystal described her experiences with discrimination and argued that many social issues come from pre-conceived notions about others, whether concerning race, gender, or physical health. You can read about her amazing story in TIME Magazine!
As we heard these diverse and compelling ideas, each speaker was guided by the community, who gave comments and asked questions to better direct speakers towards their intended impact. We are very proud of how far these speakers have already come in developing their ideas, and we look forward to hearing more ideas at our next pitch sessions on August 16th and September 13th.
Speakers in attendance: Arkadiusz Stopczynski, Cecilia Smith, Crystal Emery, Christopher Robichaud, Deblina Sarkar, Hunter Hendeson, Liz Powers, Matt Carroll, Neil Gupta, Jiten Dajee, Pitichoke Chulapamornsri, Robert Cocuzzo, , Sebastian Lourido, Thomas Ermacora, Viirj Kan.
