TEDx Conference Will Bridge the Gap Between the Community and UNBSJ
The organizers of a new event at the University of New Brunswick’s (UNB) Saint John campus hope they can connect students with the greater Saint John community.
TEDxUNBSaintJohn, an independently student-organized conference taking place March 24 on campus, will feature nine speakers from the province and beyond.
Event co-chair Tyson Fitzherbert says the idea to host a TEDx event came about a year ago as one would expect – by watching a lot of TED Talks.
“Last year, myself and Kenya Plut, the other co-chair, were obsessed with TED Talks,” says Fitzherbert. “I think everyone goes through that phase every once in a while.”
While diving deep into the TED website, they came across an “organize” page, where they saw that universities could stage independent events under the banner of “TEDx.” Turns out, UNB’s Fredericton campus was looking to host their first event in the next month.
“We went for it and saw TEDxUNB in Fredericton was happening. Inspired by this, we thought ‘Oh, it would be super awesome to bring one here to our campus as well,’ ” says Fitzherbert.
“We applied for a license and a couple months after that we heard back, and fortunately we were approved.”
The now sold-out event has the overarching theme of “ConnecTED.”
“We came up with ‘ConnecTED’ because we wanted to bridge the gap between our community and campus life. Saint John is unique in that we have many diverse and bright individuals, many of whom are students at UNB Saint John, and by connecting each of them to our community on a larger scale we will only see these individuals foster their own ideas and innovation,” he says.
The event has nine speakers lined up including Robyn Tingley, Tanya Chapman, Mike Cameron, Lisa Hrabluk, Bryan Fader, Greg Hemmings, as well as UNB students Cassie Hall, Rachel Frairs, and Mandy-Lynn Donovan.
Donovan, who is a Saint John-based comedian and community advocate, says her talk will focus on “overcoming yourself.”
“People are born into different socioeconomic backgrounds, but it’s what you choose to do with yourself. It’s what you choose to do with what you have. When you play a game of poker, you don’t know what hand you’re going to get, but it’s how you handle the hand that you are given,” says Donovan. “That’s the message that I try to inspire and give. No matter what you have, it’s what you make of it. So my talk will be an idea developed along that message.”
She says having something like a TEDx event in Saint John is important because it connects people with proactive ideas and those interested in hearing them.
“We want people to grow and we want Saint John to grow. Doing events such as this is a great opportunity for people to be able to enjoy their city and be proud of their city if they weren’t already, and tap into what I like to call our inner ‘Saint Johnian.’ ” she says.
Fitzherbert says the goal of TEDxUNBSaintJohn is to not only share the speakers’ ideas, but to encourage the attendees to share theirs as well.
“Our goal in having this event is to shine a light on a wide array of multidisciplinary ideas. Sometimes all we hear about is the negativity that happens here in the city, so featuring talks about positive change, entrepreneurialism, and those that just make you feel good will be a pleasant change,” he says. “We want to feature big ideas that encourage the delegates to lead change on the university campus, local community and around the world.”
Though it’s the first year the Saint John campus will be hosting a TEDx event, the organizers hope the event will continue after most of them graduate this year.
“Five members of our team are graduating this year, including myself,” says Fitzherbert. “However, I would love to see TEDxUNBSaintJohn continue to come to fruition year after year. It provides a platform, which is lacking here in Saint John, for the ideas important to the community to be shared freely and spread throughout.”