January 31 saw the culmination of nearly nine months of work by the student volunteers who organised the third annual TEDxUTSC conference, an independently organized event that followed the same format as the widely known conferences organized by TED, the not-for-profit organization that runs a global set of conferences.
TEDxUTSC brought 13 speakers to the Scarborough campus’ Academic Resource Centre to share their ideas in 15 to 20 minute talks.
“TEDxUTSC is a bigger success every year, despite being so young,” says Jad Murtada, a TEDxUTSC speaker relations associate.
Murtada says the event attracted 215 attendees, overselling the initial allocation of 200 tickets.
”The live stream garnered international attention with viewers from Germany, Turkey, and others,” Murtada adds.
The theme of the conference was “Unleash the Fantasy,” bringing together speakers who had done extraordinary things or put forth ideas that broke norms.
The conference was broken into four segments with conversational and lunch breaks in between.
One speaker, Teresa Gomes, a student activist who is currently in her third-year of a health studies and international development program at UTSC, spoke of creating an initiative, Education & Equity for Women, in Niliphamari, Bangladesh.
In her talk, Gomes highlighted the importance of being cognizant of the present and how the power of human connection can impact the world.
“You have been making an impact because, through those human connections, there is a ripple effect throughout the world,” Gomes told the audience.
Also in attendance was Olympic gold medalist rower Marnie McBean who discussed how people can achieve extraordinary things with the “+1” policy, injecting her talk with real-life examples from her times at the Olympics.
The speaker list also included UTSC faculty members.
Brian Harrington, a former UTSC student and lecturer in computer science, discussed how GPAs are only half of what you get out of the university experience, while Rene Harrison, from the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, forewarned the dangers of osteoporosis to couch potatoes.
Rohit Gandhi, an Emmy award winning journalist and filmmaker, came out to speak wearing the flags of Canada, South Africa, India and Pakistan on the sleeves of his suit. Gandhi then proceeded to peel off the flags, which represented his nationalities, illustrating the importance of “being country-neutral journalists out there.”
The conference also featured live performances from a variety of performing artists, such as a Bharatnatyam Dance, and paintings by UTSC students that showed how the community came together.
For his part, Murtada says that the event, which is in its third year, is a bigger success each time. “We hope to continue this trend,” he says.
