Columbia is one of 75 cities nationwide taking part in TEDx, an effort by the nonprofit TED to promote dialogue in communities. On Saturday, the TEDx City 2.0 event sought to showcase people’s ideas to better city living.
A variety of community members from artists to teachers aimed to speak and inspire at the event. The program focused on three themes: adaptive use and creativity, energy and transportation, and public wellness and education. Program organizer Cale Sears said these themes were chosen from community dialogue.
“There was a lot of other options that TED you know encouraged us to look at but we tried to really be concise with our time and from conversations with different people that either work for the city or that work in Columbia those were themes that resonated with the people," Sears said.
Sears said the experience is very unifying for Columbia because it’s not just a conference it’s an overall experience. Co-organizer Keith Politte agrees on the benefits of the event.
“TED's a really uniquely positioned platform that kind of engages people from different sectors of a community so what it allows us to do is gather people who can share ideas that they may not have heard before and hopefully now we can take action on some of the stuff we heard," Politte said.
TEDx plans on continuing to host events in the upcoming year along with a larger event in 2013.