Concordia's first TEDx

You might already know about TED. He’s 25 years-old and likes sharing good ideas. His name is an acronym for technology, entertainment and design, and he’s become something of a global phenomenon.

If you haven’t heard about TED, chances are you’ll be hearing more about him on campus, as Concordia hosted its very own TEDx event on Saturday, attracting a crowd of over 400 people from the student body and beyond.

TEDx (x=independently organized), is a TED-like event which shares the same mandate as its larger, American parent to spread innovative and exciting ideas but on a smaller, local scale - and at a significantly lower admission price! The "x" program is new – under two years old – but immensely popular, and interestingly, a big hit in India.

Montreal too is developing an appetite for TED. Jan Florjanczyk, a McGill master’s student and organizer from McGill’s recent TEDx said, “When they started out on the McGill campus, they didn’t think it would burst outside the McGill bubble and it did immediately.” Proudly, he added that “Montreal has such a hunger for TEDx events, the community here is brilliant, fast-paced, and active.”

In terms of numbers, Concordia and McGill hold two of the biggest TEDx conferences in Canada, and they are entirely student-run. It took eight months of careful planning to make this first TEDx Concordia a reality. Aside from the logistics of recruiting volunteers, publicity, and catering, Alexander Lynn, a member of the organizing-team, said the biggest focus of all was selecting the right speakers for the occasion. “At the end of the day,” he said, “they are the vital component.”

Concordia’s version of TED offered inspiring and thought-provoking talks about everything from mash-ups to 3-D printing. Among the speakers were a few of Concordia’s own students (Gavin Kenneally, Yan Ohayon, and Paul Gillet) and professors (Gad Saad and Owen Chapman). The conference also included live musical performances from the hip-hop collective Nomadic Massive.

Whether the speakers were based in arts or sciences though, social media, social involvement, and sharing were common threads throughout the “connect the dots” themed event. Mitch Joel, a marketing expert whose talk started the conference off, set the mood by encouraging people to open up their “digital shades” and be more social – both online and off.

As vital as the speakers are to the TED experience, attendees were reminded that all the talks were being recorded for online consumption. The point of being there went beyond the lectures and couldn’t be captured in a Youtube video, status update, or Tweet. This was something Generation Y isn’t completely familiar with: analog social networking.

To help foster communication, organizers encouraged audience members to return to a different seat after each break, and the breaks themselves were advertised as “hotbeds for serendipity.” Organizer and host David Chouinard reassured participants that, “it’s not awkward to interrupt a conversation and start talking with someone.”

Yazen Alkhouri, an electrical engineering student I spoke to during the lunch break, told me what I had already been hearing from a lot of people: “here, you won’t find two people alike.”

To find out more about the speakers, go to tedxconcordia.com. Videos from the event will be uploaded in the coming weeks.

Photography by Eva Blue