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TEDx conference in Kassel on September 1
Image: Pamela De Filippo
TED conferences are associated with Vancouver, Rio or Berlin. Visionaries who want to inspire others with their worldview and spread good ideas speak there. The videos of their speeches, the so-called TED Talks, are clicked millions of times on the Internet. Now the successful format is also coming to North Hesse: On September 1 (and not, as initially planned, on August 31), the first TEDx conference - an independently organized, licensed offshoot of the original - will take place at the Staatstheater Kassel. The number of listeners is limited to 100. Interested parties can apply for tickets at http://tickets.tedxkassel.com by August 10. Tickets are priced between 30 and 100 euros.
The idea for the conference was born at the University of Kassel. "Northern Hesse has potential," thinks initiator Hai Hoang. As co-founder of UNIKAT Lab at Science Park Kassel, an institution where students work on innovative projects across disciplines, he says he has met many young people with great ideas. TEDx, he says, is the ideal format for making such ideas from the region better known: "We want to give North Hesse a stage."
"Tales of Tomorrow" will be the motto of the first TEDx conference in Kassel - a reference to the Brothers Grimm, the famous story collectors of North Hesse. "We thought that was fitting. Because there will be great storytellers at our conference, too," says co-initiator Julian Corj, who studies economics at the University of Kassel. And what will the speakers' stories be about? One big topic will be sustainability in all its facets, something that fits well with North Hesse (and also with its university). "We want to look to the future: What can a sustainable tomorrow look like?" The speakers - including some people from North Hesse, but also international guests from India and South Africa - will each have a maximum of 18 minutes to share their ideas with the audience. The team does not want to name names yet. It should remain exciting.
"Of course, planning the conference is a challenge," says Hai Hoang. But the entire team is fully behind the concept, he says. In addition, he says, there has been a lot of encouragement from various quarters. Dr. Oliver Fromm, Chancellor of the University of Kassel, for example, has written a letter of recommendation. Something like that literally opens doors. However, the TEDx license also comes with some strict conditions: Among other things, only 100 spectators may be present at the premiere of the conference. But anyway, it's also about what happens afterwards, he says: "All the speeches will be available to watch on the official TEDx YouTube channel afterwards." In this way, the ideas from northern Hesse will be transported all over the world. A nice thought.
Until the conference, there is still a lot to do for the TEDx Kassel team. One of the people working behind the scenes is mechanical engineering student Marvin Hoffmann, who has known Julian Corj since his school days and has followed the TED Talks on the Internet for years: "For me, it was therefore a matter of course to work on the conference." Nevertheless, the makers can still use more support: In particular, helpers are needed who are familiar with event management, sound and video technology.
By Pamela De Filippo