This year, our difficulty was trying to steer away from 2014’s theme of “Ignite,” yet deciding on a concept that is equally moving and thought-provoking. After painstaking deliberation, the theme for this November is “Switch: Change Your Focus.”
There were many ideas behind this theme. The concept of shifting perspectives or considering new influences and possibilities. It happens when we challenge our thinking or experience a sudden change of mindset when something just clicks.
Take a moment to consider what “Switch” means to you. It’s open to interpretation and we’d love to hear your thoughts. Share your ideas with us on Facebook and Twitter!
]]>In the meantime, you can check out last year’s talks on our YouTube channel to reminisce the experience. We suggest reliving Eric Chong’s talk on taking a risk and following his passion. With a new restaurant opening, talk about igniting his dreams. Or perhaps watching the chemistry and respect between Scott Moir and Tessa Virtue will inspire new teamwork goals.
Although TEDxYouth@Toronto isn’t until November, this year we’re introducing a mini mid-year event to give youths another TED-like experience to accommodate our growing audience and their enthusiasm. Be sure to check our Facebook and Twitter for upcoming news!
Our next blog post will introduce the theme for 2015 as well as our team members so you get a better sense of who we are and why we’re excited to be a part of TEDxYouth@Toronto. While we hope that our event and our wonderful speakers will inspire you and help discover yourselves, this blog will give you behind the scenes insight while we share our experiences over the course of the year. Don’t hesitate to tweet at us from time to time. Chat soon!
]]>The Organizing Committee was founded five years ago and ever since we have been coordinating annual conferences featuring talks by the top professionals in their fields. Some of our past speakers include Olympic medalists Scott Moir and Tessa Virtue, Facebook Canada’s Jordan Banks and former astronaut and Member of Parliament Marc Garneau.
Every year, youth from around the globe either join us in person or virtually and each year interest in our conference grows. To keep up with the demand, we are recruiting new members to join the organizing committee. As part of a licensed TEDx team you will be working alongside other dedicated volunteers in the spirit of ideas worth spreading.
Not sure that you would make a great fit to the team and that you should apply? Take this short quiz to find out:
- The following is true for you. Pick one:
- I love TED talks and watch the videos quite often. I’ve even seen some from TEDxYouth@Toronto’s event
- TED? What is that?
- You are at a TEDxYouth@Toronto team meeting discussing how to engage youth to the event. You:
- Participate in the discussion and throw out some ideas. This is fun.
- Sit quietly in the corner and doze off.
- It is event day – the day we have all been working hard towards. A youth attendee approaches you and wants to share her business idea with you. You:
- Get excited and hear her out. After listening, encourage her to pitch the idea to Arlene Dickinson who is about to give her TEDxYouth@Toronto 2011 talk about Entrepreneurship.
- Shake your head from side-to-side and walk away.
If you answered (a) for each of the above then apply to join the TEDxYouth@Toronto team now! Don’t miss the deadline on February 28, 2015 for your chance to contribute to the biggest and longest running TEDxYouth event.
]]>We, the TEDxYouth@Toronto organizing team for 2014, cordially welcome you to the first post of this season. This is the place to be for continuous updates as we plan this year’s event and today we have a very special announcement.
The theme for TEDxYouth@Toronto 2014 is (….drumroll, please…) IGNITE! This theme arose from our team’s realization that all of us have great ideas and aspiration but sometimes we do not know how to achieve our goals. Through this year’s line-up of speakers, we hope to inspire you to find the tools to fuel your ideas into action.
We are the longest running TEDxYouth event in Canada and, over the last few years, and thanks to all the support, we’ve been growing substantially. As such, for 2014, our team is working hard to provide you with a well-rounded TED experience that we hope will leave a lasting impression before and after the event.
Aside from physically joining us on event day, here are some way how you can get involved with us:
- For up-to-date news, like us on Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/tedxyouthto
- Share your thoughts with us by following us on Twitter https://twitter.com/tedxyouthto
- Let us know what ignites you with the hashtag #TEDxYouthTO14
- For more detailed updates, subscribe to our blog post https://www.tedxyouthtoronto.ca/blog/
- Get excited about this year’s event by watching some past performances/talks on
- Youtube https://www.youtube.com/user/TEDxYouthToronto
Since April, the Organizing Committee was working hard to create a fantastic experience for November 16. That special day finally arrived this past Saturday and the pieces from each team came together.
Early in the morning, the sponsors set up their booths, the speakers practiced their presentations and the Organizing Committee prepared the final details. Everyone was eager and waiting for the 250 delegates to arrive. When the youth arrived the energy was contagious – each one was excited for the talks, getting new contacts and sharing ideas.
The TEDxYouth@Toronto Organizing Team would like to send out a few heartfelt thank-you’s to those that made our vision for November 16 come true. Thank you to the sponsors, the speakers, the performers, the Emcee and, of course, thank you to YOU, the youth.
Currently the photos from event-day are being prepared and the videos of the talks are being edited. Stay tuned for those in the coming weeks and keep updated by following us on social media. Hope to see you next year!
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Less than 3 days away until TEDxYouth@Toronto 2013!
It’s crunch-time for our organizing committee who is busy finalizing the schedule, compiling the delegate package, and arranging last-minute preparations at the Ontario Science Centre.
We are excited about the event this Saturday, Nov 16th, and hope you are too! For those who cannot join us in-person on Saturday, here are a few ways to participate virtually!
1) Tune in through our Live-Stream! A live-stream will be available for the entire event on November 16th starting at 11am through our homepage. Grab some popcorn and join in the talks from the comfort of your own home.
2) Join in on the online discussion! We will be active on our Twitter (#TEDxYouthTO) and Facebook feeds on November 16, so share your thoughts and impressions with us. Don’t forget to invite your friends!
In the meantime, we encourage everyone to read our 2013 speaker/performer line-up bios. For those who want to get further into a TED talk mood, check out our 2012 and 2011 speaker talks on our YouTube channel.
Cheers,
TEDxYouth@Toronto Team
Please note: TEDxYouth@Toronto 2013 livestream is free to watch and open to the public. However, admittance to the in-person event at the Ontario Science Centre is by invitation only – all spots have been filled and we are unable to extend new invitations. We apologize for any inconvenience.
]]>Attendee applications for our November 16 event closed October 14th and we received an overwhelming amount of over 400 applications.
Shortly after the application deadlines, our team locked themselves in a room to review the responses. We were all amazed by the quality of answers – each applicant put a lot of thought and effort into it. The organizing committee enjoyed reading through the applications and getting to know our audience a bit better.
From history or from the present, who would you choose to have dinner with? This was one of the questions that we feel reveals a lot about our potential attendees and the one that featured the most unusual answers. The top three people chosen for dinner were Leonardo da Vinci, J.K. Rowling and Steve Jobs. Other honourable mentions were agents of peace such as Mother Teresa and Gandhi, scientific geniuses such as Nikola Tesla and Albert Einstein and political game-changers such as Pierre Trudeau, Hitler and Martin Luther King.
The amount of applications we received this year surpassed previous years and our target. We are absolutely thrilled to have such a reponse. For us, this can serve as an indicator that the organizing committee is doing a good job – signing on interesting speakers, spreading the work and making an event that many of you want to be a part of.
We are very pleased that we evoked so much interest and look forward to seeing you November 16th in-person at the Ontario Science Centre or virtually through our live-stream.
]]>To introduce you to the theme and get you excited about our event on November 16, we have collaborated with Neon Tie Films to bring you a promotional video coming soon to a computer screen near you.
Ever wondered how a video is made or what goes on behind the scenes at a film set? This weekend the crew, actors and Director/Producer Aleksey Matviyenko were busy filming and we sent Kateryna Shpir from the TEDxYouth@Toronto PR and Communications team on location. Here is her report:
In the summer the PR/Comm team met up to discuss ways to promote our event in November. We wanted something inspiring that appealed to our audience and was a preview of the theme. A short film would be the best medium to accomplish this goal.
Sabeen, the TEDxYouth@Toronto co-chair, and I met up with Aleksey in early September to discuss the making of a promotional video. We exchanged some ideas and this got the ball rolling. A few days after the meeting the work started – before filming, the script was drafted, a crew was assembled and actors were casted.
After a month of preparation, everyone gathered early this Saturday and filming lasted all day. There was make-up, lighting, silk screens, cameras and more on the set.
“I really wanted to capture how discovery is so personal”, explained Aleksey, “Everyone has their own definition of it.” To achieve this, shooting was done in different areas of Toronto and featured three high school students experiencing the different aspects of discovery.
The opportunity of being on set allowed me my own discovery. It was exciting and also a bit intimidating being on set. I realized how much work is involved. For a teaser that will be approximately one minute long lots of time, a large team, tons of equipment and great patience and dedication is required – and this is even before any editing is done.
I can’t wait to see the result, which we will share with you in a couple of weeks from now. Stay tuned!
For those that have already replied, we’d like to thank you for your insightful responses. After reading through the applications and learning more about you, it’s only fair if we, the outreach team, share a bit about ourselves. So here is our application to the conference!
Name
TEDxYouth@Toronto
Age
4 (fun fact: it’s our fourth year of hosting TEDxYouth@Toronto)
Twitter Handle
@TEDxYouthTO
Have you been to a previous TEDxYouth@Toronto?
Yes! 2010, 2011, 2012
A bit about us!
1. Tell us about the journey of your greatest or most rewarding discovery.
Robotics used to be about feeding my competitive beast. My philosophy changed when I returned as an alumnus to leverage my experiences in guiding students during the competition season. The simple-sounding task masked the fantastic reward: watching talented youth channel my gentle nudges as they grew tremendously during their high school years.
No words can describe the satisfaction I felt when a student (and good friend) thanked me for the six years we’d spent working together. It perpetuated my desire to continue to engage with youth while uncovering my greatest discovery: the monumental impacts that my simple actions can have. – Shankar [Outreach Coordinator]
2. If you could invite one person, historical or fictional, to be your dinner guest, who would it be and why?
It would have to be Steven Truscott. Long story short, Truscott was a Canadian who was wrongly sentenced to death at the age of 14. It wasn’t until 50 years later that he was finally acquitted.
I remember watching a documentary on him in high school, and it boggled my mind ( and still does) how such shaky evidence could be used against him, that he was 14 when he was charged for murder, and that he survived 50 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. His journey and his life now is one that I’d love to sit and listen to. – Kevin [Outreach Coordinator]
3. What is a challenge you see in your local community, and what initiatives have you taken to address them?
My university days are the most memorable times of my life. I was mesmerized by the diversity of ideas exploding on campus. Regardless of how controversial the concepts were, they were analyzed and discussed with respect within an open environment. This contrasted to my high school experience, which was dominated by cliques. While these cliques provided a strong social bond, they inadvertently encouraged a groupthink phenomenon which depressed the diversity of ideas.
That is why I joined TEDxYouth@Toronto 4 years ago. I want to help create the open environment of universities for a high school audience, for the high school me. – Kelvin [Co-Chair]
4. How have you engaged and affected your peers in the initiatives you’ve been involved in? Why do you think it is important for youth to be aware of these issues?
Since my early teens, I have been engaged in different organizations ranging from leadership programs to human rights awareness organizations including Journalists for Human Rights and Pride Toronto. I found my passion in learning about these issues, spreading awareness and making a difference. My peers became interested in what I was doing and eventually became involved too.
It’s significant for youth become aware and interested in different issues because from their participation, their awareness will grow, which will be accompanied with personal growth. Being exposed to these issues not only broaden views but gives one the opportunity to have dialogue and engage in creating a positive change in any issue in the community, country, and world. – Alleyna [Outreach Coordinator]
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Greg Overholt is the founder of Students Offering Support (SOS). SOS is a student organization based in 30 universities across North America, where volunteer leaders hold group review sessions before exams and raise money for development projects in rural Latin America.Since graduating from Wilfred Laurier University in 2008, Greg has grown SOS into an award winning international social venture. Since inception, 3000 SOS volunteers have helped 25,000 students prepare for exams, raising $1,400,000 for education based development projects.
Emily Lindin is the Founder and President of the UnSlut Project, an initiative inspired by her own experience of school, after school and online bullying. The UnSlut Project has expanded from Emily’s own middle school diaries to now include the collected stories of many women who have suffered slut shaming and sexual bullying but have overcome it in various ways.
The UnSlut Project has two goals: first, to reach out to girls who are currently suffering and offer them some hope for the future; and secondly, to demonstrate the extent of sexual bullying and “slut shaming” in our schools, communities, media, and culture, so that we may begin the path toward change.
Katherine Hague is the Co-Founder and CEO of ShopLocket. Prior to founding ShopLocket, Katherine worked as an independent digital media consultant and in a variety of marketing positions for Toronto startups. Katherine launched ShopLocket in May 2012 and raised a $1 million seed round in the summer of 2012. ShopLocket now provides thousands of entrepreneurs a simpler solution for selling online.
Katherine is a graduate of the Schulich School of Business and HackerYou, and was recently named one of Canada’s 7 Tech Stars by the Financial Post. Katherine is very active in the Canadian startup community and is committed to helping other young entrepreneurs succeed.
We’re obviously really excited to have such a great initial set of speakers, and thank them for taking their time to tell us their stories. We hope that once we’ve finalized our entire panel, we’ve put together a range of speakers that speaks to our entire audience and their individual goals, adversities and passions. To stay updated on future speaker announcements, simply add us on Twitter (@TEDxYouthTO) or Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/