Planning is underway in earnest for the idea-fest that is TEDxYouth@NIS on 21 March, 2020. The event burst onto the calendar ever so subtly back in 2016, with the very first talks from the community, by the community and for the community.
With less than 100 intrepid adventurers in the audience, themes of love, life and death were offered up for consideration over a 3-hour feast for the mind. Admittedly, many novice attendees confessed that knowing the caterers for the event were major motivators in their decision to attend, but something else has been drawing people back for more, year after year, and they are bringing their friends along for the ride.
The tiny jewels of unmasked eloquence that speakers bravely reveal on stage last longer than the epicurean delights of the half time show; and the digestion of the “Ideas Worth Spreading” takes longer than it does to hoover down some beef sliders and tacos.
Since 2016, TEDxYouth@NIS has grown apace of the human race, exponentially. In the subsequent events; “Blossom” and “IlluminaTED”, the purvey of speakers ran the gamut from A.I. to Hip-hop, social media to emotional intelligence, empathy to alcoholism; this lot shy away from nothing. The multidisciplinary nature of the event means there is something for everybody.
Shareena Mundodi not only relished the opportunity to share her call to action in her talk, Shake My Hand, an impassioned plea for a return to homespun values, but also the chance to make an impact on others from all walks of life and all nationalities.
Crafting a talk for any audience is a challenge, but the particularities of the TEDxYouth@NIS audience who hail from the four corners of the planet, as well as native Nanjingers, makes for diversity and circumspection squared, from the brave idea-smiths who take to the stage. As Mundodi so poignantly observes, in a world where “social media allows us to cherry pick the moments we share and the vulnerability we allow ourselves [to feel],” such a platform strips away the selfie-filtered sheen and plants real life, vulnerable advocates for a better future for ALL right in front of the entire global audience. All TEDxYouth@NIS talks are recorded for posterity and can be found online.
Former speakers laud the event as an authentic platform from which to explore new ideas to an audience that genuinely cares. The community nature of the event only serves to highlight the tremendous vulnerability of each and every speaker who takes to the stage to share a piece of their soul and a call to action.
On why to give a talk of this kind, Angela C said, “Before deciding to do my talk, I was hesitant and very anxious, but I accidentally stumbled across a quote by Susan Sontag while writing my speech. [She] said that ‘intelligence is really a kind of taste: taste in ideas. The truth is always something that is told, not something that is known’. That is why we desperately need [these] initiatives. If no one ever speaks the truth, it will always just lie there in a pile of waste”.
Angela, like all of her TEDxYouth@NIS sibling speakers, are out there, refining taste, sorting the waste and shaking us out of the first world bubble of complacency so easy to float away inside upon the winds of materialism and privilege. “Empathy is not taught, it is inspired, and awakened.” (Angela C., 2018)
Make TEDxYouth@NIS 2020 a date in the diary, one to inspire and awaken the empathy in you.
