TedxPretoria

On the 27th of September we had the first ever TedxPretoria which was hosted at The Innovation Hub. It was my first ever Tedx event but definitely not the last. Being part of the TedxPretoria organizing team was really something special, a great honor and plenty of fun. It had to be lots of with Linda “The Circus Master” Swart at the helm

So what is Tedx?

TEDx was created in the spirit of TED’s mission, “ideas worth spreading.” The program is designed to give communities, organizations and individuals the opportunity to stimulate dialogue through TED-like experiences at the local level.

At TEDx events, a screening of TED Talks videos — or a combination of live presenters and TED Talks videos — sparks deep conversation and connections. TEDx events are fully planned and coordinated independently, on a community-by-community basis.

TedxPretoria had a great turn out. It was a full house of Ted Talks fans that came to listen to some really great speakers. The stage setup was also nicely designed in-line with the TedxPretoria theme of Collaboration. The students from the Pretoria school worked on the TedxPretoria stage logo and they did an awesome job on it.

"The more playful you are, the more creative you become"

Itha Taljaard

The Speaker lineup was also good with a balance of experienced Tedx speakers like Stafford Masie and Leyla Haidarian and newbies like Ahmed Alkayyali, Lany Sommers, Itha Taljaard. The youth were also well represented with Bruce Dube from Youth Village and Geekulcha’s very own Gabriel “Poetic Blaque” Matabane on the spoken word and Tiyani Nghonyama talking and showing some of his cool inventions.

There was a bit of beatboxing from Christopher MacClements aka ChrisMac who took the audience through a variety of beat-boxing sounds that originates as far as France, England and Australia. His set was wrapped with a tribute to local South African Sounds

Each speaker went home with a hand drawn portrait of themselves which was pretty cool. To find out more about the different speakers have a look at this TedxPretoria link: http://www.tedxpretoria.co.za/

Food for Thoughts

The lunch was so nicely packaged by the Blankcanvas team in this designed boxes. The food was really something different yet very delicious and fresh.

Constant laughter and stomach pains were dished out by Don Packett. He was the MC and a great one at it

Really looking forward to the next TedxPretoria event and hopefully be part of the organizing team again. Massive respect to the “Circus Master”, Linda Swart, for taking up the challenge, selecting the right team that worked so well to deliver the amazing event.

"People don’t want more tech, they want more convenience. Make it disappear and it will be more ubiquitous"

Stafford Masie

Let the spirit of Innovation and collaboration continue beyond TedxPretoria because through it we will be able to see lots of change within our city and also our country.