My takeaway from conducting a TedX event
Prelude:
The TedX event was scheduled to take place on April 30th 2017 at Cowrks amidst one of the most prime tech hubs in Bengaluru, RMZ infinity.
We had spent the most of the previous day setting up and rehearsing for the upcoming TedX event. Some people stayed back past nine to help people get comfortable and work on setting up the stage.
I had a chance to be part of TedxSanFrancisco2016 the last year and it was great. This time I decided to be a part of TedxUlsoor by helping conduct it to understand what goes into conducting an event at such a scale,first hand.
The dedication towards the success of the event was quite appalling.
The crew needed the Event to be a success, nobody wanted anything else.
The Day(April 30th 2017):
We had people hustling and bustling to complete tasks that were leftover from the previous night. There was always more that could’ve used help with. This was around when they called for a team meeting and each were assigned our roles to play in ensuring that this event turns out a success.
I was assigned the role of Speaker engagement among various responsibilities that ranged from attendee engagement, ticketing, Speaker Engagement and so much more.
There was no line drawn.
Everyone was told that all the responsibilities are interchangeable and the success of this event relies on how well we could pull this off as a team.
One by one, attendees started arriving. Speakers came quite early as well.
The day had begun. Some were working on ticketing, some were talking to attendees to engage them, some were assisting the cameramen and everyone was eventually working towards making TedXUlsoor a grand success.
Speakers and troupes with performances lined up began rehearsing for the showdown. I spent my day at Cowrks making sure that everyone from the speakers to the cameramen were comfortable and happy for this event couldn’t have happened without them.
More and more people started arriving. The scene got a little intensive and event had finally started.
Amidst making sure everyone had a great time, I totally lost track of time to an extent where my personal work was lagging behind. I managed to isolate myself in one of the soundproof cabins during lunch to get some of my incomplete work completed.
One part where I got a little preoccupied with making sure everyone had a great time, I requested another person from the crew to bring some of the best coffee for our speakers as they waited while other speakers spoke. The coffee ended up being a little more expensive than I had figured and that caused a bit of commotion, but none too bad nevertheless.
We had Draamebazz Children’s Troupe,Shravani and Sanjeev Thomas along with his brothers perform as Primla Hingorani, Asha Thadani, Mayank Kumar, Shabir Momin,Suresh Jayaram and Vikram Ahuja delivered astounding speeches in their own respect. We also had Dimple Devdas show us a video that resounded largely with the audience.
I was unable to watch everyone’s performance for I was held up helping around and working, however I look forward to when Ted releases the recorded videos plus I wouldn’t want to let the cat out of the bag beforehand
At the end of the day, the event was a grand success.
Everyone was able to communicate their message to the crowd effectively and that’s what I believe makes a great TedTalk. One does not need great orating skills or massive achievements to ensure a great Ted Talk but rather empathy does indeed go a long way.
I can say without a hint of doubt that this event was success due to everyone cooperating and putting their best foot forward, Everyone including the cameramen, people from Cowrks, Speakers and the Crew without any of which this event wouldn’t have been possible.
I’m proud to have been part of Tedx 2017 Team and TedxUlsoor 2017.
My takeaway from helping conduct this TedxUlsoor event was the need to have foresight while conducting events or any activity in a group. Actions taken by an individual could slur all the hardwork put in by others and that doesn’t do justice to the rest that put in their time.
This was my takeaway from conducting a Tedx Event in Bengaluru, India.
Cheers!
