By Josephine Norris, Photo Editor.
Bay City is home to tall ships, stunning fireworks and plenty of bars – but it can now add TEDx to its history.
The Bay City Players played host to a sold out TEDxBayCity on Oct. 22.
TED stands for “technology, entertainment and design” and is an organization dedicated to the spread of ideas and “a global conversation about our future” according to the organization’s video.
Kelly Wilson, 51, of Midland described the TED talks she’s seen online as “inspiring. There’s nothing negative.”
Cameron Zvara, a Delta student of Bay City, organized TEDx, an offshoot of TED that grants licenses to individuals who want to put on their own version. Zvara was granted such a license and set about to make it a reality.
Even though the name differs slightly, TEDx events are run under strict guidelines to resemble the TED talks you can find on the Internet.
Jenny Wu, 16, is a junior at Bay City Central high school. She’s seen many TED talks in the classroom and was able to attend TEDxBayCity.
“I thought that it was really cool that we have one in Bay City, like this is the first one.”
The speakers included Delta professor Eric “Q” Beckman, magician Gene Anderson, journalist Melissa Jun Rowley and motivational speaker Jim Tuman. The collection of speakers was diverse and fit Zvara’s theme: the four most interesting people he’s met in his life.
The topics of the night ranged from working with introverts to the value of laughter to changing your narrative to make the most of the time you have; the evening held many ideas and perspectives.
“It was really neat to see kind of an up close version of what we see online and the fact that different towns are kind of perpetuating this movement [of TED] that we find so interesting,” said Wilson.
Tom Lowrey, 67 of Midland is familiar with TED as he puts on a “Tuesdays with TED” event each week at a senior center in Midland, where he plays online TED talks and leads a discussion afterward.
“It was nice to feel – I’ve seen dozens of TED talks – and it’s just feeling the energy in the room when it’s live that’s just so cool,” said Lowrey.
Delta professor of psychology, Brent Fonville, came out to support not only his college and friend Beckman, but to support a movement of educational opportunities.
“It’s a good event to bring to the area so they can get more educational types of talks to the general public for those who wouldn’t normally be attentive,” said Fonville.
Fonville also sees his support as a way to make a difference.
“If we want more good educated events, we have to support them. So, I wanted to be a part of that support.”
The positive reaction as well as diversity in the audience was fulfilling for Zvara.
“It’s awesome to see the high school students talk with the adults and just get different perspectives from everybody and that’s really what the event was about in the first place – and it happened – it worked!”
Zvara doesn’t have immediate plans to host another TEDx event, but shared that “there is a lot of feedback that they want another one. So, it is a potential opportunity in the future.”