Abstract

I was part of the curation project for TEDxSingapore 2020. We were tasked to investigate and research on potential speakers, topics/ideas that the public wants to hear. Consolidate then synthesize the curation principles imagine. Finally, we had to plan and pitch the launch of TEDxTJC which consisted of the speaker database, theme and curation proposal for the TEDxTJC event.

Background information of the projects / tasks which you were involved in

I was involved in the curation project for the TEDxSingapore 2020 event, “To Boldly ___ ! “. The project aims to work on the ideas, themes, topics and speakers for TEDxSingapore 2020 which would be a trademark year as it marks a new decade. As elicited by “To Boldly ___ ! “, the event theme for this year, the blank is meant for anyone to fill in and define. As 2020 marks a new decade, the theme for event is a call for action and is for anyone to boldly do something this year. Its value is in how we as a curation team can bring this vision to life, to curate ideas, and speakers that would inspire. Be it to step out of boundaries or to be bold enough to retreat both actions are justified and this event should inspire the audience to do so.

Towards the end of the project, we were also tasked to inform teachers of the LA department the themes, topics, and speakers that students would want to hear from through a presentation as the teachers are intending to start TEDxTJC. If TEDxTJC goes well, we might also be part of the curation team in the school. It would value add to our experience in WOW extending this month-long attachment to the local TJ community. It would be very insightful both for myself and the TJ family to platform speakers to talk about issues and ideas that we want to hear and is more specifically catered to what the student community in TJ want to hear which would be more appealing to students.

The resources put into this project are personnel, for example external speakers and also sponsors for the event venue. At the point I joined the TEDxSingapore 2020 project, the planning for this event has just started because the intended date of the event is mid of the year. The task that I engaged in was to come up with potential speakers that we would like to platform at this event and also the topics that we came up with that are in line with the event theme.

The way it could be done is in the following approach (overview):

- Research on the curation principles that TED abides by

- Brainstorm on the topics and ideas that the public wants to hear (topics have to be in line with the theme “To Boldly ___ !”

- Find potential speakers that are doing something interesting or

- Invite old speakers from past event that are doing something different from what they already shared

Elaboration / record of the activities done

1^st week: Share and explain about my favourite TED Talk. The rationale of such a process is to give us a taste about what a TED Talk is and what kind of issues does TED feature. The TED Talk that I shared was how leaders inspire action. The talk taught me how leaders inspire others with their own belief system allowing others with similar beliefs to follow suit. Our next task was to brainstorm which speakers to invite to the event by coming up with a wish list of people in Singapore who we think the public would like to hear from. We were tasked to find the “unsung heroes” of Singapore who made some contribution to Singaporean society but has not have the chance to be platformed on a bigger stage. The rationale of this process would be to introduce us to the curation process which was a good way to generate new ideas worth spreading. We also had to brainstorm topics that the public would like to hear. This would be beneficial as casting the next wide would allow us to shortlist later on.

2^nd week: Present on what we have researched on in Week 1. Receive feedback from mentors about delivery and slide content. It was beneficial for us to get a sensing of our skills when we just started so that we would know what else we can improve on. We participated in a meeting that involved the panelists(speakers) and also our mentors. This meeting was held in preparation for the TEDxSingapore Salon event about “Why Art matters”. This meeting served to give the panelists an idea of the scope of the event and the questions that would be discussed during the event. The rationale of this process was to give us an idea what a business meeting is like. Participating in the event itself a few days after gave us an opportunity to listen and find out what Singaporeans are interested to know about for Art which would be beneficial for the major TEDxSingapore 2020 event. This would be beneficial for us in curating what the public wants to see in terms of Art for the 2020 event. In the rest of the days, we did online research on how TED curates. The curation principles are as follows:

1) What is the idea?

2) Types of Talks

3) Curating the theme

4) Curating the topics

5) Finding speakers

3^rd week: We delved deeper into how TED curates, what other criteria should be chosen for TEDxSingapore 2020 (speakers should come from an array of disciplinarians, should be from different ages, race, gender) and revised ideas of 3-4 speakers from 2015 that we would like to invite back to the 2020 event. For our presentation this week, we delved into the specifics of how TED curates followed by presenting the topics that we thought of and were aligned to the event them, "To Boldly". The topics namely are, "To Boldly Live", "To Boldly Preserve" (our hawker culture, environment), "To Boldly Learn", "To Boldly Seek Discomfort". Last but not least, we listed out speakers that we want back from the TEDxSingapore 2015 event and gave reasons why.

After brainstorming, we made a mind map about the different topics that come under "To be Bold"

4^th week: We were tasked to present twice this week. The first presentation would conclude our learning from the month and our second presentation would be presented to LA teachers who are interested in starting TEDxTJC. The content in our second presentation include, what makes an idea worth spreading, how does TED curate, a curation criteria that we would establish in TEDxTJC, themes, topics and ideas that the students would like to hear about and lastly, speakers the TJ community would like to hear from. The rationale of this final presentation was for us to “put our skills to the test” and have a taste of starting up something in our own community. It was beneficial for us because we could apply the skills that we have obtained to a more local context, TJC. Hopefully, this could expand into something bigger and we could possibly be part of the organising committee for TEDxTJC.

Revised mind map that is more concise and catered towards what TJcians would like to hear

The project did come with its set of challenges. Firstly, we were unable to go out and interview the public or conduct an online survey to ask them which topic they would like to hear be discussed and which speakers do they want to hear from. This posed as a challenge as we could not directly get our sources from our public and could rely only on our small social circle to complete this task. To overcome this challenge, we really had to do extensive research on what were the “in” topics this year and for the future because the theme this year is not really to reflect on our past but more importantly, to project our vision into the future. To tackle the issue of potential speakers, we asked ourselves who are the ones that are doing new and exciting things but has not have the chance to be platformed on a bigger stage. We thought about our favourite innovators, entrepreneurs or people we have heard along the grape vine that were doing mind-blowing things. Another challenge that we faced as a team was that since TEDx in general is a non-profit organisation there was no office space where we can see the curation team at work, scouting for speakers or discussing about ideas. That posed as a difficulty for us everything we had to do was from scratch. We had to learn how to brainstorm and not only thing about the obvious ideas and topics that the public wants to here. Instead, we had to think from different angles just like how a story can be seen from multiple perspectives We had to be deliberate in the positioning of the idea and also, the speaker need not talk about his specialty. An example, we can draw is when Bill Gates was invited to give a TED Talk. He did not talk about how he co-foundered Microsoft, instead he talked about the fight against malaria. It was no doubt harder to think from multiple perspectives, for example, instead of “To Boldly seek discomfort” why not “To boldly retreat”? The latter would be unexpected because it seems to not align to the theme but if explained correctly it would give a fresh perspective. Not being able to witness the meeting of the curation team might be seen as a disadvantage but it also gave us an opportunity to think out of the box single handily.

Elaboration / record of results / deliverable / impact of work done

Though our project is not exactly tangible because we only took part in the first phase of curation of the 2020 event due to the duration of our participation. There were still a few key outcomes, namely, the potential speakers that we suggested in our presentation would be considered in the TEDxSingapore 2020 event. Suggested speakers, were Inch Chua, Marc Nair, Dylan Soh, Joseph Schooling, Gwee Li Sui. The ideas, issues and topics that we have discussed might become the speakers’ topic of discussion. The topics include, “To Boldly Seek Discomfort”, “To Boldly Retreat”, “To Boldly Preserve” (hawker culture, environment).

The learning outcomes are to investigate, research, consolidate, then synthesize, imagine, plan and pitch. Be a self-starter with high level of drive. Be able to work independently. Be a thinker and a doer. Be curious about important and impactful issues and ideas perspectives across different fields in our world, society and future. Be open, friendly and like to talk to and interview people who you have not met before. All of which were achieved.

3 content knowledge / skills learnt

All of my skills learnt are soft skills though not tangible but are can be reflected in any future projects.

1^st skill: Thinking from multiple perspectives. It may seem easier said than done because there is still a lack of fresh perspectives that the public has not heard of before. We can only think from a different angle if we look deeper or in our case look at the polar opposites (To Boldly Retreat), or risk taking from different angles

2^nd skill: Presentation skills I really could improve on during my month-long attachment with TEDxSingapre. In terms of delivery I learnt how to be more confident in my speech and knew the specific presentation style that was best for me. That would be a few pointers to my guide my through the presentation instead of an entire written down speech. In terms of content of the slides we were advised to only include a few words in our slides and not sentences because the slides serve as a guide and the focus should be on the presenter. I also learnt how to articulate my words better and only to put emphasis on a single part of the word. In addition, it is also important to work through the presentation at a comfortable pace which means to not speak to quickly so that it would be easier for the audience to follow. It is also important not to fidget too much during the presentation (i.e. swaying from side to side, touching of hair etc.). A method to stand still would be to place one leg vertically, pointing towards the audience, and one leg behind, placed horizontally.

3^rd skill: Learning how to curate for an event. The curation part is what happens behind the scenes and is often overlooked because people normally focus on the glamour of the speakers. However, it should not be belittled because it is also as important to curate an idea which fits the theme, appeals to the audience, and has not been shared before. In addition, curators should not only look for famous/world renowned speakers as that defeats the platform TED, as TED serves to spread an idea and not feed on the name of a speaker. This is because, firstly, TEDx curators looks for the interesting idea in the speaker worth spreading and not just an interesting person with an idea. This is something that is unique to TED/TEDx as it is the idea that we should discuss then we talk about the speaker that fits sharing this idea. However, it is also wise to note that an interesting person would attract a larger audience thus one or two speakers like this would be good to include in an event. Following the selection of speaker, the TEDxSingapore actually works with the speaker one to one for about 6 months prior to the event. This amount of dedication is laudable.

2 interesting aspects of your learning

The first rewarding aspect of my learning is seeing the public so engaged and deep in thought with the discussion. To give some context, my team and I participated in the TEDxSingapore 2020 Salon event on “Why Art matters”. This event is unlike the large scale one that I have been sharing about which would take place in the later part of the year. Instead this event is more community based and allows the public to engage in deeper discussions in smaller, more focused groups. In the first part of the event, the facilitator would ask questions like “When was the last time you were moved by art”, “What happened to our brain when we do art”. For one of the participants she was moved by Art when one of her patients with mental illness found a love for folding paper cranes and was completely transformed by it. To the question “Why Art matters”, one of the participants said that that was our sanity and society without would lose humanity and crumble. Some participants also discussed about the evolution of Art, and how Art now involves technology for example interactive digital art. Participants were found to be more open to weaving technology into the traditional narrative of Art which I felt was very eye opening. There were discussions across all ages from old to young with the old encouraging different expressions of Art by the young generation. It was really rewarding for me to witness how Art can bridge generations, encourage conversations between them and allows for openness to new ideas/forms of Art. My participation in the project allowed me to witness all of this which really touched my heart.

A realistic aspect of the job would be TED/TEDx is a non-profit organisation and does not have an actual “office” to work from aside from the occasional meetings with the panelist at the National Gallery where we observed business meetings. Thus, we could only work independently from school most of the time and were supposed to give a presentation once a week about our progress. A disadvantageous aspect of this would be that we could not really observe our mentors in their natural working environment as this is done outside of their working hours and they are only volunteering.

1 takeaway for life

Something that is precious and unique would be the community that TEDxSingapore builds. TEDxSingapore has built a community of over a 100,000 followers who are dedicated to their mantra of “Ideas Worth Spreading”. It is not easy to build such a large community and what amazes me even more is that it all started with an idea, and passed on from one person to the next it has grown into a community. 1 takeaway for life is to never belittle and idea because it can spread like wildfire and stimulate discussions in communities.