MSC Aggie Leaders of Tomorrow (ALOT) will host the third and final session of TEDxTAMUSalons for this semester on Nov. 19 from 6 to 9:30 p.m. in Rudder Forum.
TEDxTAMU is an independently-run TED conference held on campus. In the vision of TED, the conference is devoted to bringing renowned speakers to share their ideas through speeches. MSC ALOT hosts a TEDxTAMU conference every spring semester, but this is the first year they have held smaller TEDxTAMUSalon events.
TEDxTAMU executive director and chemical engineering sophomore Kayla Lotz said the talks this fall have been organized in a salon style, having full-length TED talks, each followed by a round of questions and answers.
“We organized three sessions for this fall with transparency, engagement and experience, and breaking barriers as their respective themes,” Lotz said. “We as a group believe in positive communication on campus, and we see TEDx as an amazing way to bring in diversity of speakers from currently different backgrounds to speak on the same topic and, in turn, allow students to sit and experience a diverse perspective and be able to discuss that afterwards.”
The process of nominating a speaker is divided into three rounds, according to TEDxTAMU Director of Speaker Relations and biomedical engineering sophomore Caleb Kwan.
“People nominate a speaker on the organization’s website, and once the window for the same closes, emails are sent to the people who have been nominated who are in turn supposed to send an audition video along with their planned proposed talk,” Kwan said. “That’s when we select the people, and the last round involves training those selected nominees so that they’re completely ready for the event.”
The process not just included nominating speakers for the talk, but also included other basic tasks without which organizing this event would not have been possible.
“We started planning this in the beginning of the semester and went through various other processes like asking for the license from TED and taking approvals from the MSC,” Kwan said.
The organization is divided into subcommittees that are responsible for handling specific tasks. The main purpose of the organization is to build freshmen leadership. Andrew McGlothlin, engineering freshman and operations team member, said the salons spread information and helps people experience different points of views.
“We have a mission statement, ‘Ideas Worth Spreading’ and we try to keep up to it,” McGlothin said. “It helps us spread information and helps people experience different points of views.”
The freshmen said it was their responsibility for the event to run smoothly.
“At the beginning, we were in charge of making themes for the talks after which we helped other subcommittees achieve their specified goals,” biomedical sciences freshman and sponsorship team member Carolina Govea said.
Operations subcommittee member and engineering freshman Mark Matis said unlike the conferences held in the spring, the talks will not be concluded by performances.
The event is featuring 5 speakers: Michael Green, Lyndsey Hogue, Ray Person, Timothy Davis and Suzan Nguyening. All members of the organization are enthusiastic and confident about the success of this event because they’ve organized such events before as well.
“Unique is a broad word,” Kwan said. “Everyone has a unique story which makes the entire event a unique and a beautiful experience for everyone.”
Tickets can be purchased for $13 through the MSC Box Office. The limit is 100 seats in order to keep the event intimate.