TEDxCUK - Let's get involved and motivated

TEDx event in Catholic university of Korea

The First TEDxCUK event was held in Songsim Convention center on Dec.3 2010 and around 100 people gathered and enjoyed watching inspiring TEDxCUK event.

I've seen a couple of TEDx events in Ewha women university, Kwanghwamun and Myeongdong and a lot of inspiring TED talks motivated me to launch TEDx event in my college. I started looking for students who could help me organzing TEDxCUK event and finally around 15 poeple gathered together and that's how it began.

Let's get involved and motivated

The maing theme of the first event goes like this. Many college students, office workers, and other people have their different experiences and great ideas. However, how many are there who deliver their own ideas to audience effectively, so that they can be inspired? TEDxCUK was made to provide an opportunity for many college students accustomed passive way of living to get them involved and motivated. Like, instead of having their beautiful fish in their own fish bowl, having them swim around with other beautiful fish in a big fish tank, we would like to provide an opportunity where different ideas swim around together in the same place so that they can be spread to other people and inspire them. As Gregory Berns put it, “A person can have the greatest idea in the world, but if that person can’t convince enough other people, it doesn’t matter”, we would like to expect people to exchange their ideas worth spreading so that people can feel “TEDxCUK-like moment”.

많은 대학생들과 직장인들 그리고 다른 많은 사람들은 다양한 경험을 하고 저마다 멋진 아이디어를 가지고 있습니다. 하지만 그것을 제대로 청중에게 표현하고 그들에게 영감과 새로운 아이디어를 선사해주는 이는 얼마나 될까요? TEDxCUK는 수동적인 태도에 길들여져 있는 많은 대학생들을 참여하게 하고 그들에게 열정을 줄 수 있는 기회를 만들어 보고자 하는 생각에서 만들어졌습니다. 자신의 조그만 어항속에 한 마리 아름다운 물고기를 간직하기 보단, 커다란 어항에 자신의 물고기를 다른 물고기와 같이 어울려 놀게하여 보는이에게 더 큰 즐거움을 줄 수 있듯이, 각각의 다양한 아이디어가 한 장소에서 만나 보다 많은 이들에게 퍼져 나갈수 있고 영감을 줄 수 있는 기회를 만들고자 합니다. 그레고리 번즈는 이렇게 말합니다. “누구나 멋진 생각을 가질 수 있지만 그것을 남에게 효과적으로 표현하지 못하면 아무 쓸모없다.” 그레고리 번즈의 생각처럼 우리가 가지고있는 퍼트릴 만한 가치가 있는 아이디어를 표현할 수 있게 하고, 그럼으로써 많은 이들에게 ‘TEDxCUK 같은 느낌’을 공유하려 합니다.

I made the video below - this is what TEDxCUK is about and you can watch the first TEDxCUK trailer below.

Setting up the stage 

we tried to make it look like a great movie that captivates the audience. We needed to differentiate it from normal classes where students usually get bored enough to fall asleep. To make it catchy, setting up the stage was one of the most important things that I can't neglect.

• lights- we set up the light on the stage so the audience feel more comfortable when watching speakers speaking.
• logo - it took all through the night to make this but it worth it.

Sir Ken Robinson - Do school kill creativity?
we showed the audience a TED talk video of Sir Ken Robinson whose speech is mainly about revolution in education. I thought this was the right video for the audience because 95% of them were college students many of whom were so obssessed with getting a high GPA, certificates and TOEIC score that directly is realted to getting a job in a Korean society. Our intention of showing this video was to have them re-think about the meaning of their lives. To be more specific, we wanted to encourage them to pursue what they like to do instead of following other people just preparing for English tests to get a job.



One of my favorie quote of his is "don't be frightened of being wrong... if you are not prepared to be wrong, you'll be never come up with anything original" Apparently, many Korean college students feel insecure of current job market and instead of looking for their future goals, challenging and going through the obstacles, they stuck in the studying room repeating the same TOEIC tests again and again. Every and each one of us has our own talent and we need to find and develop them. So we invited 5 different speakers who followed their passion in their respective fields, and what's the reaction of the audience?

Motivated Audience
They seemed attracted by inspring speakers all through the session and after the end of the event, they left the comments saying "it was a great TEDxCUK event. It's amazing that it's the first event. Looking forward to the next one" It was one of the most satisfactory moments in my life.

Looking forward to next event
The second TEDxCUK event is planned to to be held in middle of May but it's tantative. Hopefully, I can make the more inspiring moments with other TEDxCUK organizers in the next event.

One more thing!
Great TEDxCUK organizers- without their help and passion, there would have never been TEDxCUK.
Thank you all.