First TEDxPostech Event Held
First TEDxPostech Event Held
  • Reporter Kim Sung-hwan
  • 승인 2011.11.23 18:40
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The first TEDxPostech was held at  the POSCO International Center on Nov. 5. Five speakers were invited and the expenses for the event were sponsored by two institutes of POSTECH (refer to the Campus News).

For readers who are not aware of TED, TED is a non-profit organization which is founded based on the objective of sharing and spreading valuable ideas. It holds annual TED Global with some of the world’s most influential people as speakers. Al Gore was one of the speakers with the famous Inconvenient Truth. TEDx is an independent event in which licensed groups can open small TED events in the name of TED. TEDxPostech is the one opened at POSTECH.

The host was a group of several undergraduate students who voluntarily and independently got together around Choi Kyoung-min (IME ?0) and began to prepare for the event for seven months.

What distinguished TEDxPostech from other TEDx events were fresh and novel trials that other TEDx events did not try before. As the core value of TED is spreading valuable ideas, TEDx-Postech had a session during which raffle-picked participants stood and shared ideas out loud. Another event was creating the sixth speaker from the participants through polling. Though the polling system seemed to not work well, it was a good try and Erik Connelly, a selected speaker, delivered a good speech.

The participants surveyed had diverging opinions of the organization of the event. Though there were compliments to be commended, there also were many defects to be bettered.

Potential Improvement
The order of two speakers was changed.
According to the Seo Seong-wook, a co-director, it was because one of the speakers missed a train. Foundationally, it is not a problem of TEDxPostech; however, real-time coordination on the phone from the morning might have helped if there were one.

It seemed that  there were mis-communications with the speakers. All speakers, except Ahn Young-il, spoke for more than 18 minutes. Song Ho-jun spoke more than 30 minutes. TED limits the speaking time to 18 minutes. Though Ahn Young-il delivered an intriguing speech, the content of his 18-min speech was out of the theme. While the theme was to talk about the technology and personal view, he talked about his past life. What he originally was to talk about was what is so-called appropriate technology.

There was less preparation for non-Postechians. There was an after-TED party where the participants got together and socialized with drinks. Yet there were no directions to students from other colleges. If there had not been the agile organizer who led all confused non-Postechian participants to the party place, they might have left with more disappointment.

The event was not well-promoted. There were some participants who came without the full understanding as to what TED is and what it stands for. Some Postechians did not even know about the event. The next event must be better promoted.

Satisfactory Factors
Fresh ideas were realized. As mention-ed several times, TEDxPostech tried two new things: the sixth speaker’s session and the share of ideas during ice-breaking. Though the ideas were not all perfect, the attempts were good.

The mementos and foods were good. To the participants, TEDxPostech gave out tumblers with the TEDxPostech logo on it. Also, TEDxPostech distributed pens and other products. People looked satisfied with the presents.

It seemed the audience was from diverse background. The audience ranged from a high school student to an adult working in Pohang City Hall. Also, the geographical diversity caught notice. Some were from Daegu and others were from Ulsan. Jin Seong-gwang (IME ?0) said that the diversity of the audience was satisfying.

All were students. From planning to the smallest jobs as lighting, the student organizers took all positions. Though the organizers need improvements, their efforts and the outcome as the first event are commended. Good job.