It was a nice day towards the end of summer. I had just returned home from a week by the beach and was gearing up for the 4 years of degree torture ahead. Luckily, I happened to stumble upon something called âe-mailâ. There, at the top of my inbox, sat an unread message with the subject âTEDxUSMC Committee recruitmentâ. Holy moly! I had completely forgotten about the application and had missed the interview date! But little did I know that wasnât the last time I heard of TEDxUSMCâŚ
Fast forwarding 2 months and I got a message from Jun Wei, a senior at our campus, asking if I would like to help in organizing the TEDxUSMC Salon event. I agreed and before I knew it I was in charge of the F&B with four other organisers.
To make it clear, a TEDx event is a gathering of the local community where live talks or recorded ones from TED are shared. On a smaller scale, a TEDx Salon event is a more regular gathering of the community where talks are viewed and opinions shared through discussion sessions.
Our TEDxUSMC event was to be held on the 2nd of December so we decided to have our Salon event a little before, on the 17th of November to be precise. Following the designation of the various roles in our committee, we got to work. The days flipped by and the 17th of November soon arrived. Our hard work definitely paid off as the event proved to be a massive success, for us and the audience alike.
Over this course, the TEDxUSMC team opened to volunteers for the event. I applied and Jeremy, one of the organizers for the Salon event and the Media Curator for the main event, approached me to be part of his âmedia curatingâ crew. Joined by Priscilla, the three of us were tasked to handle the social media accounts of TEDxUSMC.
We divided the roles into three categories: posts before the event to create excitement among the attendees (primarily by Jeremy, and a bit by Priscilla and myself), live coverage of the event on the day (by me) and an official TEDxUSMC blog to cover the whole event (by Priscilla). As Jeremy put it, we were probably the most chill group among the volunteers.
Days flew by, and the much-awaited day was upon us. Fortunately, I had a seat in one of the front rows of the auditorium. With my laptop and mobile phone fully charged, I was ready for a day filled with Facebook and Twitter posts. The minutes ticked by, the speakers went on and off the stage, and the posts kept going. Boy, I had never typed so much in my life!
Nevertheless, it proved to be a delightful experience, thanks in no small part to the TEDxUSMC crew, particularly Jeremy and Priscilla. I am already looking forward to next yearâs TEDxUSMC event, hopefully as a committee member. And so are the other crew members, Iâm sure.
