Mershon Auditorium will be home to the 12th annual TED Talk Event on Saturday. Credit: Mackenzie Shanklin | Lantern File Photo
Those looking for an innovative way to spend their weekend can look no further.
TEDxOhioStateUniversity is hosting its 12th-annual TED Talk event at Mershon Auditorium Saturday and will feature 12 speakers and one student performance group, all from Ohio State.
Cecelia Walter, TEDxOhioStateUniversity president and a fourth-year in civil engineering, said the opportunity to see a TED Talk in person is something students should take advantage of.
“This is a pretty unique opportunity for students in the Columbus community that isn’t really offered anywhere else in the area,” Walter said.
According to its website, TEDxOhioStateUniversity is a student organization that hosted its first conference in 2011 with three organization members and around 200 attendees. Since then, the organization has grown to include 50 student members and accumulated around 16 million views on YouTube.
Bilan Yakoub, TEDxOhioStateUniversity director of development and a third-year in neuroscience, said the theme for this year’s event is “Currents.”
Speakers’ expertise includes harm reduction amid the opioid crisis, sustainability fiction writing and more, according to the event’s website. Former Ohio State football player Harry Miller will also speak at the event.
Yakoub said the event will feature a performance from Origins, Ohio State’s all-male Bollywood-fusion dance team.
“We put on this large-scale event to highlight Ohio State’s innovative ideas to share with the international TED community as well as with the Columbus community,” Yakoub said.
Walter said she thinks the event has the ability to inspire conversation.
“I think our event has so many opportunities to spark new ideas and discussion in topics that you might not even know you have a passion for,” said Walter.
The event will be held from noon to 4 p.m. Tickets are on sale at the front desk of Wexner Center for the Arts and at the organization’s website. The student event price is $15, and the adult price is $30. The price of admission includes all of the TED talks and a light lunch during the event’s intermission.
