TEDxPenn will host its 2022 conference, Æffect, in person

TEDxPenn will host its annual conference — titled “Æffect" — for the first time in person in three years, featuring several social activist speakers.  

The conference will take place at 1 p.m. on Saturday at the Annenberg Center for Performing Arts. The speaker lineup will consist of gun-control activist Rosalind Pichardo, artist and social activist Roberto Lugo, lighting artist Lyn Godley, sports technology executive Jeehae Lee, restauranteur Ellen Yin, electrical and systems engineering professor Santosh Venkatesh, English professor Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz and high school student activists Christina Ellis and Edha Gupta, according to the TEDxPenn website.

College junior and co-curator of TEDxPenn Adalyn Richards said that TEDxPenn decided on the theme of "Æffect" — which holds two possible meanings, effect and affect — after creating the speaker lineup, which includes a larger social activist presence than in previous years. 

“We want to hear from them to see what has affected their journey and the effect they’ve left on the world. In that sense, we’re combining together both the verb and the noun 'affect' and 'effect' to bring together a lot of different perspectives,” Richards said. 

This year’s conference also marks the beginning of a new collaborative initiative between TEDxPenn and the larger Philadelphia community. College senior and TEDxPenn co-curator Trinity Arsenault started the West Philadelphia & Greater Philadelphia Youth Initiative to make the conference more accessible and said that she hopes future club leaders can continue making progress in this field.

“My hope is that this year we can foster some long-term partnerships between youth programs, local high schools, and TEDxPenn," Arsenault said. 

In the future, she said, TEDxPenn may offer invitations with free event tickets for surrounding high school students and community members each year. 

“It’s a lot of work to be able to organize something like this initiative; it takes a lot of communication, and my hope is — in laying the groundwork this year — this is something that can last long beyond Adalyn and I’s leadership as Co-Curators," Arsenault said. 

Richards added that one of the challenges of the planning process for the conference this year was the timing of the pandemic since it meant the leaders lacked knowledge about how previous conferences were run in person.

“I’m a junior, and we’ve had three virtual conferences, which means that I’ve never attended an in-person conference and neither has my co-curator,” Richards said. “We have a team of 30 people — who’ve never seen an in-person conference — who are trying to run one for the first time in three years.”

Richards said that her team had reached out to TEDxPenn alumni and had gone through old planning documents to figure out the norms and expectations of a typical TEDxPenn conference.

“It’s been a bit of a guessing game, but we’re feeling pretty good just because we have the support of a strong alumni network of previous TEDxPenn students. It’s been challenging, but we’re excited to see how it turns out,” Richards said.

TED, which stands for technology, entertainment, and design, is a multinational nonprofit organization that hosts conferences featuring speakers who share ideas in short presentation talks. The TEDx program allows organizers to receive a license from TED to host independent TED-like events in their community.

TEDxPenn is the largest student-organized TEDx conference in the world, with a license to host up to 1,000 attendees. The group was started in 2010 but grew to its present size in 2014 after Penn Engineering professor Vijay Kumar gave a successful TED talk on flying robots. According to Richards, this connection allows TEDxPenn to have a special relationship with the head TED organization.

Arsenault said that she is proud of the work TEDxPenn has put into creating the conference and believes that the speakers are well prepared for a great event. 

“Our priority is to spark powerful ideas and create positive impact, start conversations,” Arsenault said.