Fans of the world famous TEDx conference series will have the chance to attend a variety of engaging lectures without leaving campus as TEDx comes to Texas A&M.
TEDx, a series of educational conferences that hosts experts of all fields to come and give talks about any topic, has achieved worldwide renown, holding conferences all over the world. This Saturday A&M will host its own student run TEDx conference, TEDxTAMU, welcoming 16 different speakers to come and share their knowledge with students and residents.
Jacey Goerlitz, Chief Executive of TEDxTAMU and political science senior, said there will be a broad spectrum of different topics for attendees to choose from.
“We have 16 speakers … there really is a variety of talks and discussions,” Goerlitz said. “They range from people who have taught at prisons to people who study microbes in the brain and how they affect human behavior, to people who have lived homeless in Vegas and they’ve started homeless projects. We have alumni who have gone on to become the president of the New York Aggies club, we have professors who have done extensive research in their fields.”
Goerlitz said the conference allows people to customize their experience based on their interest in specific speakers.
“There’s four different sessions throughout the day so people can pick and choose which sessions they buy tickets to, so if they want to come in the morning for a couple of session they can, if they want to come in the afternoon they can,” Georlitz said. “People are able to go online and look at the different speakers throughout the day and see if they find any topics interesting, and they can go to whatever session they want to.”
Kayla Godfrey, member of TEDxTAMU and business administration sophomore, explained the mission of TEDx conferences and the theme for this year’s event at A&M.
“TEDx is a conference where you are trying to share ideas that could potentially make a difference in someone’s life,” Godfrey said. “Our theme for this TEDx conference is ‘Horizons.’ So we’re trying to look to the future … something that could change the way we see things.”
Godfrey said events such as these require a huge amount of work to organize.
“It does take a lot of prepping and conversations with a lot of different people,” Godfrey said. “We have to go out and get sponsorships from people to put on the conference, and that’s a lot of work. And then we have to get nominations from people at A&M. I’m in the speakers subcommittee, so that means I’m working one on one with the speakers, trying to make sure that their speeches are great.”
Amanda Messer, one of the scheduled conference speakers and co-founder of the nonprofit organization “because I said I would,” said her speech will focus on the topic of promises.
“My talk is called ‘How to Handle Broken Promises,’” Messer said. “I think it’s an unfortunate reality that at some point in your life, even if you are very good at your commitments, you will break a promise at some point, no one’s perfect. And I think it’s how you handle that that partly defines your honor and your character as a person. When you come to this moment of breaking a promise, whether accidental, intentional, or not, how you handle that could have a big impact on your relationships around you.”
The TEDxTAMU event will be at Rudder Forum on Saturday, April 22 from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., with tickets on sale at the MSC Box Office.