TEDxUniversityofStAndrews: The time has come

TEDxUniversityofStAndrews is making waves in our little pond, unveiling their new website and announcing its launch event, planned to occur at the end of February.

TedxUniversityofStAndrews has officially arrived.

TEDxUniversityofStAndrews was founded in April 2012. Although there was a TED event last year, organizer Kian Schreiber and co-organizer Jon Jachimowicz insist that this year’s event will be entirely different. “What we want to do is to lay the foundation for future years,” Jachimowicz said. “Kian and I got together and said, ‘Right, we now have a luxury of time, we have a luxury of planning all of these things out. Let’s create something that can then turn out to be a legacy for the future.’”

At the launch, information regarding the major TEDxUniversityofStAndrews event later this semester will be released, such as the when, where, sponsorships and speaker list. Both organizers promise the speakers will include big names but are otherwise tight-lipped over specific details.

Creating a so-called legacy for the future is one of the central focuses of the TED 2013 event.  Schreiber and Jachimowicz hope TEDxUniversityofStAndrews will become an event outsiders view as worth travelling to, in the same way events such as Oktoberfest, FS and Don’t Walk garner international audiences. “Being an academic institution and one of the best in the UK, we thought it’s only right to have an academic event of the same scope [as Oktoberfest, FS and DONT WALK],” Schreiber said.

Encouraging student involvement in TEDxUniversityofStAndrews is another point of emphasis. “The way we organised it this year is to have as many people get involved as possible because there are a lot of people who watch TED, who like TED talks, who are enthusiastic and passionate about it but they might not have so much time to be in the committee,” Schreiber said. “Basically, we take advantage of the entire student body.”

Students can participate by applying to be a student speaker at the 2013 event, requesting a speaker via tedxuniversityofstandrews.org or contacting the club by emailing [email protected]. Jachimowicz and Schreiber say that they are very happy to meet with anyone who is interested in discussing TED.

image courtesy of Tedxuniversityofstandrews