Reflections on Organizing a TEDx event

In November 2019, we successfully organized our second edition of TEDxWoosongUniversity at SolBridge International School of Business, Daejeon, South Korea under the theme “Rising to the Challenges.” The event brought together exceptional minds to share ideas and challenges in their sphere of influence and how they have risen to overcome those challenges. Ideas ranged from business, humanities, disaster to what it means to live as third cultural kids.

There is no doubt organizing a TEDx event is exhausting and requires a great deal of hard work and commitment – especially if you have a full-time job (as it’s a full-time job in itself). The benefits though are invaluable. The ability to witness speakers and their ideas evolve from auditions to their final TEDx talks gives us organizers a sense of accomplishment. The event allows one to interact with people from various professional, cultural and educational backgrounds from speakers to the volunteers. My teammates came from over eight different countries.

As a sole organizer for our second event TEDxWoosongUniversity event, I saw myself grow professionally, from having to manage and communicate with a team of people from different experiences to working under extremely stressful situations. It was a constant learning process, in all ways, as we faced new challenges and issues daily. I have learned and grown both in team motivation, negotiation and leadership competencies. There might be many stressful days during the planning process; however, seeing the speakers on stage, delivering the talks of their life and observing the audience reactions during the event makes everything worthwhile.

I am glad to have had the opportunity to organize TEDxWoosongUniversity and look forward to continuing growing the TEDxWoosongUniversity community and to creating inspiring and meaningful connections within the community.

Click here for a sneak peek of the event’s pictures.

Click here to listen to the ideas shared on the event.