Audience members walked into the Harmony Theater while speakers rehearsed their speeches one last time as NIS’s first annual TEDx youth event, “Bloom: The Unbounded Xpansion” officially commenced on Saturday May 23. For the speakers who spent months rehearsing their talks and performers perfecting their techniques, this was the moment that everything led up to.
TEDx Youth is a branch of TEDx, which is an organization that hosts public conferences. TEDx Youth focuses primarily on the stories of children and young adults. The event was planned and coordinated by the member staff of TEDx youth, the student leadership team, and volunteers from NIS. Several members of the NIS community showed up to the harmony theater to witness stunning talks and vibrant performances made by both students and educators. The purpose of the TEDx youth is to allow students to build confidence and express themselves to an audience by telling personal stories. Such personal stories can inspire and teach listeners about the challenges speakers faced and how the speakers achieved personal growth.
The event kicked off with greetings from sophomores Adriana and Talaw, setting the stage for the speakers. The TEDx youth event lasted between 1pm and 5pm, and followed a traditional TEDx youth style event scheduling where there was an alternation between talks and performances. Audiences also received booklets with the sequence of speakers and some questions regarding the speaker’s talk, allowing the audience to be engaged with the speaker. Each speaker talked for roughly between ten to twelve minutes, providing the audience with engaging, inspiring, and empowering speeches. During break sessions, audience members were allowed to browse activity booths and help themselves to drinks downstairs.
Prior to the event, the speakers, along with other volunteers, participated in TEDx workshops that mentally prepared the students through the guidance of Ms.Vee to be able to give inspiring and impactful TED talks. Speakers vigorously prepared for the main event, planning, refining, and rehearsing their speeches about three months prior to the event. Upon the conclusion of the event, the speakers and performers were recognized for their talent and bravery and received commendations from organizers Coco (G11), Eric (G10), and Steve (G12). The student leadership and volunteers were also rewarded with a well deserved pizza party after a long day.
TEDx volunteers, along with the youth and adult leadership teams, played a pivotal role in managing the event, from managing booths, to working backstage behind the scenes, to capturing the event and documenting talks, performances, audience reactions, etc. In future TEDx Nakornpayap youth events, the student body now has a reference to base performance off of and pave the way for even more inspiring TEDx youth events.
Overall, TEDx Nakornpayap youth has the potential to grow and develop into a larger scale event in the future, and just like the theme of NIS’s first TEDx youth, future student speakers will have the opportunity to “bloom” and share their personal experiences.
There is more reporting to come on the TEDx event. Please stay updated and follow the Stallion Chronicle @stallionchronicle_nis
