TED (Technology, Entertainment, and Design) Talks have become a fixture in recent years, with conferences hosting renowned speakers who share their research and experiences on the forefront of innovation. While TED talks themselves are quite exclusive, there is another, more accessible way to get involved: TEDx.
In this article, we’re going to explore how high school students can host TEDx events. The TED foundation has clear steps and guidelines for this, and even special opportunities for students like you. We’ll outline the steps you need to take, and explore how you can host one of these talks yourself, along with how doing so can help your college application goals. Let’s get started!
What is a TEDx Event Anyway?
TEDx events are meant to parallel official TED events, though of course smaller in scope and scale. They are a day of talks, demonstrations, and performances meant to inform participants and stimulate conversations.
Each event consists of a number of short talks, presentations, performances, and demonstrations. Attendees watch each, and gather during breaks to discuss what they’ve seen, often with snacks (snacks are not required, but we do always recommend them).
Note that these, much like regular TED events, should not have a core message or ideological bent. The talks should be on a variety of subjects, encapsulating the ideas and vigor of your community. These events are not allowed to promote special interests, market products, or advance political or religious agendas.
TEDx Events for High School Students
TEDx has a special license for youth events. While you must follow the same rules and guidelines as all other events, these are specially catered to high school students, and are meant to be done in partnership with your school or a local community. Now, we’ll break down what you need to host an event of your own.
Getting Started
First is the name of your event. This must be after your school or community, and should include the word “Youth” in the title. All TED events are named by location. Your event may last from a few hours to a full day, and can host up to 100 attendees. You are permitted to charge up to $100 per ticket to these attendees (to pay for venue costs, or snacks).
The other key thing you need to do before starting is reviewing the TEDx rules. There are a lot of these, so we’ll break down the basics. If you are hosting an event, make sure to review them thoroughly, as you are in charge of making sure they are followed.
- The event must follow the TED format for talks and presentations.
- Talk contents must abide by TED guidelines. It may not violate copyright, contain bad science, or be inflammatory.
- You must abide by the license; whoever applies for the license is in charge of ensuring all the rules are followed. The license is valid for a single event and location.
- You must abide by their rules for branding and promoting their event, to make sure it is recognizably a TED sponsored event.
- While you may obtain sponsors, they must fall within guidelines. The event must not be for profit, nor may it fundraise for charity. Sponsor logos may not be displayed, and they may not influence the content of talks.
- Your media for the event must be approved by the TEDx team, and you may not use it independently without permission.
- You must record all talks, these are to be shared with TED, who will upload them to Youtube. You may not share or upload these videos elsewhere.
These rules paint the general outlines of what an event is and should be, but there’s a lot of work that goes into setting it up. Begin by finding the right team.
Gathering a Team
While events are organized through a single person, there is way too much work to do by yourself. They recommend you assemble a team to help you organize and run the event. Note that this is all done on a volunteer basis. These are the team members they recommend you have:
- The organizer. This is whoever holds the license for the event. If this is held at your school, you must be a student.
- Adult co-sponsor. If you are under the age of 18, you must have a co-sponsor for the event. This can be a teacher or administrator at your school.
- Curator. This is the person in charge of finding and vetting speakers for your event. This can be done by one person, but this is more often done by committee, with everyone involved on your team getting a say.
- Executive producer. This person is in charge of organizing the logistics of the event, from finding the venue, to videographers, to set-up and breakdown, to post production. They often serve as event manager as well, who stage manages and runs logistics on the day of, such as ticketing.
- Communications director. TED allows you to have branding and a website to promote your event, though both must follow their rules and design guidelines. The communications director is in charge of organizing and running these.
- Video lead. You are required to video all of the talks at your event, and send them to TED. Doing this on the day of is a full time responsibility, and requires someone who knows how to use a camera.
You may need additional volunteers on the day of to help speakers, manage attendees, or work as ushers. You may also have multiple people for each role, and may distribute duties differently, this team layout is merely guidelines they have found useful.
Finding Speakers
The talk is key for TEDx Talks, which means you’ll need speakers for your event. You should first pick a theme for your talk, then reach out to and vet potential speakers, using a search committee to do so.
The theme of your talk should be both thought provoking and broad. Your event needs to support a wide variety of topics, so the theme can’t be overly restrictive. Each individual talk then has its own topic and title, decided on by the speaker.
For youth events especially, they recommend the speakers be people from your community; your fellow students, people from your neighborhood, or those with particular insights to your area. While you may invite others to be speakers, this is also a great opportunity to give your fellow students a chance to show off their knowledge and points of view. Note that you may not charge speakers a fee to present, nor may you pay them for their time.
Finding a Venue
This is actually easier for students than most groups attempting to put on a TEDx event. While you should keep in mind their recommendations for venues, you will generally be well suited simply asking your school to serve the role as host. Your auditorium will fill the role well, with the potential for another space for guests to gather and discuss what they’ve seen during breaks.
Your school may or may not allow you to make use of the auditorium for free, and you will have to schedule well in advance to make sure your event doesn’t conflict with other groups hosting their activities.
Finances
Putting on an event, any event, does sometimes cost money. From renting the space (which may or may not be a concern), to providing snacks, to other sundry costs and concerns, putting on a TEDx event can be expensive. They suggest you approach this in two steps:
- First, build a budget. You need to figure out what costs exactly you will incur, and how much each will be. The costs for a youth event are generally expected to be lower, and you can depend a lot on volunteers in your team for key roles.
- Next, determine income. This can come from either selling tickets to the event itself, or acquiring sponsorships. Make sure to follow TEDx’s rules governing your interactions with sponsors.
Documentation
The final thing you need to consider is documenting your event. TEDx requires you do this in specific ways, through video and photography both. You will need to film every presentation, take still images of speakers, and edit the footage before sending it to TEDx.
Your videos will then be published on their official Youtube channel, giving you a big boost to who can see what you’ve accomplished.
Why Host a TEDx Event?
The benefit of hosting a TEDx event comes mostly from the experience of doing it. You will gain experience with many fields of management, collaboration, problem solving, and the real world needs of event management, all with the structure and guidance of a well established and respected organization behind you.
This can look quite good on your college apps, allowing you to demonstrate your leadership skills, show off your connections to your community, or giving you a great extracurricular capstone to top off your activities list.
That isn’t to say everyone should immediately go out and try to run one of these events. You need to make sure you have something interesting to say, and a theme that will allow your community to gain something interesting or notable from the experience.
Final Thoughts
There are many ways to come together and collaborate in high school, and TEDx talks are an interesting one. Many of your fellow students likely have interesting perspectives on the world, and you can give them a venue to share these by undertaking a TEDx event. We hope that this article has shown you what putting on such an event entails, and has given you new options to consider.
Of course, this is a big undertaking to do on your own. If you aren’t sure where to get started, or want advice on another extracurricular project you’ve been considering, schedule a free consultation with us to learn how we can help you. We have a plethora of experience helping students make the most of their extracurriculars, and we’re always happy to hear from you.
