DISRUPTION-PROOF YOUR CAREER BY ORGANISING A TEDX EVENT
Adeola SOYEMI, MSc in Entrepreneurship & Innovation, collaborated with a team of enterprising students to launch EDHEC’s first TEDx event. Their collective efforts bought to the EDHEC community new “ideas worth spreading” and helped to ignite conversation and connections around a theme, that many business students and professionals are curious to understand; disruption.
The entrepreneur’s desire to drive change and progress can take-on many forms. Often, it is represented by the launching of a business that is the first of its kind. In other instances, it can be an event, like the one initiated by Adeola, that uses its convening power to facilitate the distribution of new ideas and foster professional growth.
EDHEC Business School was the appropriate location for this TEDx because our school has a long-standing tradition of producing and distributing innovative solutions valued by businesses. Read more below to discover how Adeola learned to be a stronger entrepreneur by organising TEDxEDHECBusinessSchool: The Age of Disruption
Inspiration
I wanted to help fulfil the dream of my classmate, Julia, who voiced in one of our Pitching Classes how she hoped to someday speak at a TED/TEDx event because they have so deeply affected her life. I shared Julia’s affinity for TED videos because I learn a lot from them and I thought I would enjoy creating a platform that inspires people.
On campus, another team, led by Souhail Yerrou, was working to organise a TED talk. We decided to join forces, Souhail became the co-organiser, and the rest is history. It is stimulating to collaborate with others and create something truly novel, in EDHEC Business School. I get to “make an impact.”
Purpose
The Age of Disruption, explores our current environment from different perspectives; technological, economic, political and social. We discover why conditions are changing so quickly, what new possibilities are available us, and how to make sense in this uncertain future.
The speakers: Bill Faust, Candace Johnson, Francis Bacquet, Hugo Chatel, James Sundance, Jeremy Spiller, Mickaël Dufourneaud, Omer Casher, and Serge Macé, led by our amazing and knowledgeable host, Christine Coisne, Programme Director of the MSc in Strategy, Consulting & Digital Transformation, were all excellent at conveying the unique ideas around technological innovation and its ability to change, at a rapid rate, the experiences of our everyday life.
Experience
Organizing a TEDx event has strengthened my professional competencies and business management skills. I have become more resourceful and resilient and developed new abilities in strategic negotiation, planning, team motivation & empowerment, and most definitely leadership.
I gained the experience of working with a committed and internationally-diverse team of amazing people: Souhail, Lara, Semra, Akash, Susan, Luowei, Thibault, Sophie, Aolin, Riccardo, Dev, Yinxing and Bozhidar. And to learn how different minds approach problems. Being a student in the MSc in Entrepreneurship & Innovation programme, I can say that this experience was the perfect project to complement my formal studies.
Conclusion
I would suggest organizing a TEDx to anyone who wants to help people maximize the impact that they can make on the world. TED events give people access to valuable ideas that help us to better understand and define the forces that influence our lives.
To achieve success in this endeavour it is important to first establish your motivations by aligning yourself with the TED mission; "ideas worth spreading." Then you must equip yourself with a strong mentality that says, “all is possible” while of course accepting guidance from TED/TEDx. Last, but certainly very vital is to develop a strong, diverse and interesting team. The quality of your team to the success of this event is indispensable.
