Hey TEDxErs!

We are so excited to be back with you here at ConnecTED! It’s been a hot minute since you last heard from us, but it was all for an amazing reason. We have been onboarding our new 2020-2021 TEDxUTAustin team! Now that we are getting to work, we thought it would be great to share what we have been up to and introduce you to the fun time we had at our Fall Virtual Retreat. It was such an experience — shout out to our Memberships Committee for planning the event! Among our retreat attendees were our new team members that we introduced to you guys in our Newsletter, but in case you ~missed it~, here it is! We got the chance to hang out during retreat and we are so excited to see everything this team has to offer!

President: Erica Lee

Curation: VP Pearse Flood

Cole Krautkramer, Anjika Bhalla, Tammy Sola-odeseye, Justin Chen, 

Lily Grigorian, Kelly Zhou

Communications: VP Elif Dundar

Parredhi Khurana, Aarti Aravapalli, McKenzie Castro, Aditi Kalla, 

Maria de los Angeles Villarreal

Creative: VP Zane Giordano

Sanchi Sinha

Finance and Logistics: VP Finance Conor Flood, VP Logistics Shanil Jasani

Maryam Syed, Arjun Rao, Gabe Galupo, Jessie Park

Partnerships: VP Evie Shaw

Kevin She, Karen Yang

Memberships: VP Nancy Chen

Meg Epsey

Even though our retreat was virtual this year, the energy and passion from EVERY member was palpable! Friday evening was a fantastic opportunity to get to know all of our new committee members on TED this year. We began with a fun introduction of each committee with Finance and Logistics trying to take over the “best committee” title from the Communications Committee, but Comms can never be beaten (we may be ~a little~ biased). Of course, we then had to play “Two Truths and a Lie” in breakout rooms where we also got the opportunity to just talk with each other before diving into the full fledged theme discussion!

We began brainstorming potential theme concepts for our 2021 conference this upcoming spring. It was great to hear so many different ideas and have everyone share their unique perspectives on some important issues, even though the topics we discussed were sometimes heavy or difficult to talk about. A big shoutout to Zane for leading such an insightful discussion and all the other TED members for creating a supportive atmosphere that we all felt comfortable sharing in! After a healthy conversation (and a LONG Google Doc), we ended the night, so that everyone could frantically submit their assignments due at 11:59pm. 

Saturday morning, we saw everyone’s faces, bright and early again at 10am! This time, we started with some Executive hot seats where we were able to ask questions and the participant had to answer (which was a great substitute for everyone who could not get their coffee). Then, we again took advantage of breakout rooms, and did “3 Levels of Questions,” with each list containing questions that slowly dove deeper and deeper into who we are as people. It was a fantastic opportunity, on a Saturday afternoon, to be vulnerable, and share our fears, passions, and embarrassing moments with no judgement from anybody. We finally concluded this amazing retreat weekend with a fun project reveal (more details TBA!!) that showed everyone the power of TEDxUTAustin. 

The energy and excitement from our retreat really set the tone for the rest of this year with TED. It was so inspiring to hear everyone’s unique stories and ideas, and we can’t wait to bring these great ideas to all of you! This retreat was a fun time of TED bonding, but it was also a time of reflection and growth. We got the opportunity to take in and process all the craziness of 2020, ranging from mental health during COVID to the recent election. Specifically, we focused on how we can channel all the energy and momentum of this past year into our 2021 conference, making it the best it can be. Even though we can’t connect in person, we are super excited to bring you some amazing virtual and socially-distanced events, so stay tuned!

We loved getting to know our new members, hearing their brilliant ideas and stories, and we cannot wait to share more with our amazing TED community soon! Our overall experience was incredible in so many ways. We each left the retreat with brighter eyes and bigger smiles. We work together to bring the best work to you, and although we haven’t nailed down a specific 2021 conference theme yet, we have a ton of strong contenders. Keep an eye out for our theme reveal coming soon!

P.S. If you have an amazing idea, life-changing experience, or strong passion that is worth sharing with the world, apply to be a speaker! Or if you know someone else who does, nominate a speaker!

Until next time we connect,

TEDxUTAustin