TAN ZHI YING

Background information of organisation: TEDxSingapore

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDxS organises idea events that bring people together to share a TED-style experience and spark deep discussion and connection among people and ‘curious souls’, who love and value ideas.

TED’s short, carefully-prepared talks on a wide range of subjects to foster learning, inspiration and wonder — and to provoke conversations that matter. For passion, For people, For purpose. We connect curious souls and people who love and value ideas. We reach out to inspire people to learn, share and engage close conversations about ideas that have the potential and power to make a difference in our lives, in our world and in Singapore. We share ideas worth spreading from Singapore with the world through the global TED community, and serve as a focal point for the TED community and TEDsters who live in and visit Singapore.

All TEDxS idea events are non-commercial. We strive to make all our events accessible to all people in Singapore, and as a principle, we do not charge for participation unless there are direct costs involved.

TEDxS launched in April 2009 and over 400 people joined within 14 days. Today, there are over 200 thousand people in the TED Community in Singapore.

All TEDxs are licenced from TED as not-for-profit movement and events.

Singapore was a pioneer global TEDx organiser in 2009 and has 100% community-created 50 TEDxS national events, and platforming ~200 TEDx speakers, performers and talents.

Of particular interest to me is how TEDxS managed to spot potential speakers before they were well-known and put together different styles of events (salons, panel discussion) in a uniquely TED way. Having witnessed one of such events, it is amazing to see how these ground-up events connect people on a personal level and engage the community.

Background information of the projects / tasks

Purpose and Mission: Understand then curate ideas, speakers and talents for TEDxS in 2020. We were tasked to plan and curate a significant TEDxＳ2020. We had to investigate, research, consolidate, then synthesize, imagine, plan and pitch a speaker database, theme and curation proposal. Background research was also required to come up with a wide range of topics and expand on them in new perspectives and arguments. It was imperative that we developed critical thinking skills and analysis skills such that we could develop each topics from different angles and examine new perspectives.

We also helped out at a salon event, doing behind the scenes work and participating in the facilitated discussions. We were lucky to be allowed to sit in at one of the meetings, where the organisers and panelists planned the event sand went through the logistics. We were invited to discuss about art with the communnity at the national gallery, and attended a panel discussion with professionals with different art backgrounds. The multi-faceted discussion included the audience through an app which could channel questions to the professionals.

The project aims to curate ideas for the upcoming TEDxS 2020.

First, we did background research on TEDx S and their ideals and values, such that we would be clear about the project and requirements. This included researching on TED and TEDxS talks and finding out what and why we enjoyed certain talks.

My findings and preparation included:

1) What's your favourite two TED Talks, and why?

• Inside the mind of a master procrastinator - Tim Urban

• The agony of trying to unsubscribe - James Vietch

2) What's your favourite two TEDxS/TEDxYouth@S/TEDxWomen talks, and why? *You can find ~200 of them on youtube

• How I teach photography to the visually impaired - Bob Lee

• Singlish is a language for or future - Gwee Li Sui

3) What are the difference(s) between TED/TEDx talks and other conference talks/lectures ?

• A stronger impact - inspiring: combination of personal experiences and facts
• Point of impact; breakthrough
• Engages audience by being relatable
• Passion about ideas - they are there because they want to be there
• Unique ideas
• Not boring, rehearsed, polished presentation

4) Why TED/TEDx? ie What are purpose(s)/value of TED/TEDx talks?

• Spread ideas
• Educate
• Start movements
• Online, spread knowledge of new tech (what is going on)
• Emphasises key ideas that could be important to the future

Purpose of TEDxS:

1. All knowledge is connected.
2. In every country, there are curious souls who are excited by the power of ideas, and want to learn, grow and find a future to believe in.
3. You get unexpected insight and inspiration when you listen to people and ideas outside your field and life experiences.
4. Connecting people who love and value ideas inspires creative conversations.

5) Why have local TEDx events/conferences? ie What are the purpose(s)/value of having these gatherings?

• Topics more specific to Singapore
• Encourages local people
• Increases awareness

After a discussion with our mentors, the general consensus we gathered about TED talks were:

• TED is about new ideas, new arguments.
• Speakers that received the most views were those with engaging ideas, humour, a clear structure and relatability.

Week 1

After a week of discussions, brainstorming, viewing TED and TEDx talks, research and using online sources that’s our mentor gave us, managed to come up with a broad range of topics:

Geriatric issues (issues related to healthcare)

Ageing population

An Aging population may not always be bad, the elderly still can learn new skills etc

Less dynamic workforce

Old age support ratio is enlarging

Science and Technology

Influence of social media on everyday life (and how to stay in control)

SUTD and AI

Innovation and entrepreneurship

Old Chang kee

Ethics

Bioethics

Death penalty

Economy

Perspective from the high income

Politics

Sg’s standing in the world

Neutrality

To boldly take a stand : if some countries challenge our morality, do we still stay neutral or do we take a stand

Free speech in sg

Can free speech empower? Can free speech change governments?

Immigration

Xenophobia

Perspective from the immigrants themselves

Culture

Arts

Hawker

Perspective from hawkers

To boldly preserve

Why

What they feel about it

Climate change

New perspective: is climate change a hoax

climate change for the common man

Lifestyle

Work life balance

Exercise, obesity rates on the rise

Sleep

Kampong spirit

Security and censorship

Fake news - who gets to decide what is fake news

Media and new are all controlled by the gov

POFMA (protection from online falsehoods and manipulation act) govt can take down fake news about SG online but the counter argument would be govt might misuse it to their own advantage (e.g. Taking down news about opposition parties)

Shutting down opposition (amos yee, or literally anyone that speaks against the government)

NS

Should women serve NS

Should NS be compulsory for males

Hacking

Is our cyber security not strong enough

Being uncomfortable

Changing mindsets

Kiasuism scared of losing out

Kiasi-ism scared of failing

Education

Tuition

Competitiveness

Helicopter parents

Restricted mindsets about further jobs

To boldly seek discomfort

Science and Art (the relationship between them)

The art of science

The science of art

Has art ever become a science?

Social trends

Tik Tok

Tide Pod challenge

Momo challenge

E-boy

VSCO girl

Meme culture

Legislation

Copyright

Protection laws

CPF

Architecture

Should we preserve new buildings

Should we build new buildings

We gave our first presentation to our mentor about our list of topics, however, there was much to be improved. Personally, i had to use more eye contact instead referring to my script, and have clearer enunciation. Our mentors also shared useful tips; like correcting our posture and bad swaying habits by standing with our feet 90 degrees to one another, as well as stresses on certain syllables in words. Engagement was also a problem for me as my slides were long and content-heavy.

The slides and content were another issue. Initially, our mentor chose not to give us too much information, to see how we would normally present. As a result, or slides were disorganized, which lead to the presentation having an unstructured flow.

Hence, our mentores gave us a few parameters to work with for the next presentation:

Slides : less words, 4 per slide

Bucketing ideas in micro, macro

A stronger link and clearer interpretation of the theme was required

Topic and speakers together

Placeholders for speakers

Not every topic needs to be directly linked to the speaker (eg artist on AI?)

Wish list of speakers

What do people care about BUT no one has talked about it

Different points of view, different angle = who would have interesting ideas

New ideas, different perspectives

What’s missing?

Point of view: ask younger and older people

Emerging interesting talents - entertainment, out of the box people

Arts and culture : more research on kampong spirit and hawker culture

Stress levels: talking to people

Social issues : income disparity, poverty

Communities that fall through gaps

Questions to survey : what do you care about?

• for yourselves
• Singapore
• Society

Topics can be applicable to humanity in general

Our mentors also walked us though expanding one of our topics: AI

Eg. AI

Is our education system still applicable

What should we focus on now that AI can help to do left brained work

Why are we talking about AI and tech even when it has been happening for years

What does it mean to be human in the age of AI

Issue : changing narratives

For the following week, our assignments would be to:

Dive deeper into topics

Talk to people

Find out how ted curates

Week 2

This time, we started researching how TED curates. The findings gave us a clearer insight as to what we should have done and I regretted not having done so for the first week. Now, with a push in the right directions, we sieved out the most important and relevant points of oir project. This gave us a clearer sense of what we were supposed to do and set us on track.

Some of our findings are included below:

What is a great, well-formed idea?

Something that’s new and surprising; an idea or invention that your audience has never heard about.

A great basic idea (that your audience has maybe already heard) with a compelling new argument behind it that challenges beliefs and perspectives.

In other words, an idea isn’t just a story or a list of facts. A good idea takes certain evidence or observations and draws a larger conclusion.

Types of talks:

The big idea

The tech demo

The performance

The artist’s statement

The “dazzle with wonder”

The small idea

The “issue” talk

Curating the theme

What is the difference between a theme, a topic, and an idea?

A theme is the title or tagline of your event.

A topic is a subject area that you’re interested in covering at your event.

An idea is the original concept or notion that your speakers will bring to the stage at your event.

Choosing a theme

Your theme should be abstract, and open to interpretation – it should be broad enough to leave room for a wide range of topics and speakers. Think of it like a title or tagline for your event.

Choose topics

your topics shouldn’t fall under one single subject. They should be diverse and wide-ranging. Think of topics that might fall under each category.

Here are a few things to consider when creating your list of topics:

Ask new questions

Think local

Think global

Keep in mind that this is a draft list, and not your final lineup of topics. You’ll be using this to begin researching local speakers who can address these concepts in the most interesting ways.

Look for new ideas that originate in your community but are widely relatable

Look for ideas that need to be defended

Look for an idea the TED world hasn't heard before.

Look for ideas that change perceptions.

Look for ideas before speakers

Finding speakers ((IAN N JUNYAN)

It’s not the person that we search for, but the person’s idea or innovation. This is a way to differentiate a TEDx speaker from an interesting person with a “generic” idea. This allows the audience to walk away with a new idea.

TEDx Speaker Checklist

Is this speaker…

a local voice that few people have heard before?

someone who can present their field in a new light?

someone with a perspective to which the global TED community may not have access?

diverse by demographic, ethnicity, background, and/or topic?

Vet your speakers

Gather all suggestions and group speakers by topic.

After this, we came together as a group to discuss how we shoudl proceed. Initially, we wanted to use our original long list of topics and shortlist them. However, we faced the challenge of not really knowing how to relate them to our theme. Eventually, we decided to interpret and create a mind map of the theme given to us.

(Inserts bold mindmap)

Then, with reference to both the mindmap and the list of topics, we managed to shortlist topics that were linked to the theme. The topics now were much more refined, and we had a clearer mindset about how the topic would be presented, the arguments relating to each topic were more well developed, had well-structured arguments and were2 overall more concise. These topics were:

To boldly live - changing our lifestyle such that we do not just exist, but live

To boldly learn - to keep up with the changing=ign world, taking the first step to learn new skills

To boldly seek discomfort - to step out of our comfort zone

To boldly preserve - in relation to hawker culture and old buildings

Afterwards, we expanded on the topics and tried to think about different perspectives about each theme. Some of the ideas we considered were the stakeholders of each topic, the people affected, and the people not usually associated with the topics. This would help us consider the people that would have new arguments that have not been heard. Eventually, this lead to the shortlisting of speakers that we found.

Next, our mentors had also tasked us with reviewing the 2015 TEDxSingapore speakers and to choose a few to invite back. As a group, we went through 30 of the people and chose one person each. Eventually, we had a list of 4 speakers we would like to invite back.

Sourcing for speakers had really opened may eyes to Singapore’s own talents that I would not have found on may own. These people not only represented something different and inspirational, they carried different ideas that no one would have thought of before. I was truly surprised to see that there were so many outstanding Singaporeans. This taught me to be more in touch with the community, such that I could be more aware of issues locally, like Crystal Goh’s diamond on the streets project, rather than just focusing on the international news.

After our presentation, it was relieving and happy to note that we had improved, not just personally, but also as a group. However, our feedback for this week was more content based. Using last week’s feedback, we made our slide less worldly, made more eye contact and stopped sway from side to side. Although the topics and elaboration had been more targeted, there were still areas of each topic that we had not thought about. There were several grey areas which we found hard to define, and our thinking was still limited to the mainstream. We need to be able to open up, to look at something as a whole and develop and idea from different sides. Some of the things were to examine the impact of the ideas, to be clear of the target audience, and to look from different point of view to present a multi-faceted argument.

Other feedback included:

Intonation tone

Use photos as trigger

Ground sensing

Expand the key words of the 4 big buckets

Less rotations between speakers

Research on people that have grown and developed ( previous speakers)

More keywords, phrases

Stressing on words

Our to do list for the following week was to:

Expand buckets of each topic

Specify what we wanted to know for each topic

Dive deep

Mindmapping

Think in the opposite direction

Nominate more speakers

Interesting speaker

If i were to sleep at Tedx sg what would you talk about

Think along the line of professions- who is doing something interesting

Consider different age brackets - young, old

In preparation for the next week, we were also tasked to make a set of slides for a possible TEDx TJC and work on our current set of slides. The content for slides are below:

To work on current presentation:

1)How TED curates? To ilustrate Each category to be followed by examples one TED Talk and one TEDxSingapore Talk

2) What other criteria would you choose to curate TEDxSIngapore 2020?

3) Your ideas of topics/specific questions, followed by ideas of potential speakers

4) Your ideas of potential speakers that you and what you think Singaporeans would like to hear from, regardless of theme

5) You (revised) ideas of 3-4 speakers from 2015 that you would like to invite back and what you would ask them to speak about

TEDxTJC presentation

1) What is TED? What is TEDx?

2) What makes an Idea Worth Spreading (TED Talk)? What isn't a TED Talk?

3) How does TED curate? (as above)

4) if you were to curate a TEDxTJC, what curation criteria would you establish?

5) What theme(s)would you choose for a TEDxTJC ? suggest 2-3 max

6) What ideas, issues, topics do you feel TJC community of students and teachers would like to hear about? and the potential external speakers you would invite. suggest 6-8 max

7) Who in the TJC community (teachers, students, anyone on campus) would you invite to give a TED Talk, and what might you ask to talk about or perform? suggest 3-5 max

Some useful tips that our mentor shared with us included:

SLIDE DESIGN

Light coloured text on dark background

Photos should dominate entire slide area

PRESENTATION SKILLS

Divide your presentation into 4 parts and present one part each

Watch what you are doing when your teammate is speaking

Speak more deliberately and slowly with pauses.

Keep steady, Don't fidget, shuffle feet

Look at audience, Don't rely too much on reading notes

Look at audience, Don't keep on looking at the screen

These tips taught us a lot about presentation, and our mentor’s own slides gave us a reference about how our slide should be. This would definitely help me for Project Work (PW) next year.

Because our mentors knew some of the speakers so well, we gained more insights about them; we knew facts about them that the public usually wouldn’t know, which was both funny and interesting. Through this sharing, I realised that if we wanted to platform previous speakers, we would have to find people who had developed over the years, and have new ideas to present.

Week 3

We researched the backgrounds of different speakers to find out what they have done, past and present. And by researching together as a group, we covered a wider range of research areas and came up with more information. It was more effective than splitting the work and doing individually, and made us more aware of each other’s parts. This gave us a general consensus on the presentation and we could develop each topic and idea in a more well-rounded way as we all contributed to each topic instead of splitting the work then coming together again.

This time, we separated the parts clearly and had less rotations during our presentation. This could be done as since the work was collective, we were well versed in each other’s parts.

However, we had overlooked the importance of centring the photos and text, as well as standardising the font. This made our presentation look messy and unprepared. This taught me a lesson in detail. Details that people could unconsciously notice would still impact the delivery of the presentation. While these details may be deemed insignificant, it would still affect the presentation as a whole.

After this, we had another presentation and discussion a few days later, this time with our own teachers who were discussing about a possible TEDxTJC. Listening to our mentors list our guidelines and parameters to our teachers, I gained insights about the technicalities and logistics of organising such an event, and the amount of effort actually put into making these events. The mentors’ dedication to a start a non-profit project outside of there own time and plan it for 6-8 months was amazing to me. I could feel their passion for such a project and keep TEDxSingapore running for 10 years was not easy. I felt inspired that my mentors took the initiative to run this project even though it was a responsibility and could have certain pitfalls. Hearing from their experience, realised that they still had to be careful about the topics and the angle the topics were presented. For example, one of the TEDxYouth event caused great controversy by platforming a LGBT speaker at a Catholic school. Needless to say, some parents, students and teachers were offended and this showed how important details and checking was.

For our presentation, I interviewed my friends to find out what topics they would be interested in. The following topics were surfaced:

How to alleviate stress

Peer pressure

Teacher's stress

Fear of missing out

Family stress

Mental health

Project work

That 1 group member that never does anything

How to deal with group members that dont come on time

That are not focused

That talk alot but don't do anything

-more relevant to PW students

Why our lunch time should be longer

- reasons why this is important

- no brunch

Leadership

What is leadership

How to display leadership

Is leadership just in sc

Harmony or lack of harmony between students and teachers

From the point of students and teachers

Students : teachers don't care

Teachers: students rowdy and unapproachable

School life in the eyes of a student

Cca

No social life

Studies

Exams

How to be successful

Effective studying

Forms if success

Appearances

Keeping up appearances in school

Are teens at the age where they overly care about their appearances

The importance of exercise

Are tjcians getting fatter

Are our pe modules too relaxing

Literary art (e.g.

Restricted don't have access

More open minded to portfolio

Useful to enhance the experience of singlit

Mental health issues

Student tips

How to develop hobbies outside school

The value of such a project is... The resources put into this project are...(personnel, budget, space, etc.)

others

TEDxSingapore Salon Event, Panel Discussion and meeting

We were also invited to join a meeting with the panelists and a TEDxSingapore soon event about art.

We were given the opportunity to walk around the facilitated discussions and even join in discussions about art. I gained so many insights from the diverse community gathered there, then listened to their stories in which they went around the world to explore and discover art. Some of the questions discussed was:

What is art?

What is the relevance of art today?

Why is art important?

There were other questions in which participants talked about their experiences with art and how art has shaped their lives. Listening to so many people from all walks of life allowed me to learn from their experiences. Some interesting points that I took there included:

Cameras

Capture moments in a persons life (memories)

Most ideal version of what we see

Using other settings to give the picture a certain vibe

Digital drawing

Art comes in different forms

Stories behind art

Experiences and unheard voices

Unheard voices

When was the last time art moved you?

What moves you?

Might not be able to understand but it was still moving

Balinese dance: art telling stories

Being transported into different stories

Seeing from another perspective

Value of art is journey, learning and exploring more

Art and DETAIL

How art matters :

Breaking away from the normal, away from beauty

Art: unique to us, based on the expressions of what people think of society and helps us leave our mark in society

What happens if we lose art:

Connection and empathy to others through art

Lose our energy

Our ability to express ourselves

Our humanity

Happiness- losing our feelings

Relaxation: a break from studying and working

Art form is adaptable: human brain still has so much potential - hope

What happens on our brain when we do art?

Connection to generations of people that have done it before - clicking moment, the moment that the person gets the hang of it

What's the value of experiencing art?

Expanding personally and viewing things differently- interpretation Eg. Crushed paper can be art in different contexts

Allowing yourself to be in the moment when experiencing art- transitioning into experienceing and feeling the art

Future of sets in sg

Art is a space where parameters should not apply- issue: there is so much censorship in sg that artists start to self censor and they don't know whether they're actually going beyond their boundaries

Traditionally: art for upper classes

Expensive paintings will not necessarily be good

Teamwork on art

Traditional and modern art forms- hybrid

For sg we need more freedom for self expression and to be allowed to be different or take a different path to unlock their creativity

Hope for art in sg : more art fringe activities

By youths, there are people that are not typical

Sg is practical

Ideas worth sharing about art:

Art is a space

Art has the power to center and unsettle

Art is about the process and connecting with others, not just of marketplace value

Art can give people a multidimensional perspective

Art: instinctive

Not knowing where to go but going with other people

Art is subversive

Getting into art:

Gradual, organic

Next, we attended a panel discussion session with panelists that are art professionals. There were several national museum curators and local artists such as Eugene Soh and Kelly Cheng. Hearing how art became their profession was eye-opening and their ideas about art were unique. The angle that they represented would be those that created art, and their ideas took on a new perspective. In addition, they discussed questions posed by the audience, and it was enjoyable and exciting to hear so many different points of views that were valid yet diverse. Since it was my first time witnessing a panel discussion, I experienced how it was a good way to introduce a subject to the audience and how questions need not have a definite answer.

All in all, helping out with the event and behind the scenes taught me about the logistics of planning an event, as well as the execution.

Learning from the Book Team

Other than that, it was an eye-opening experience to listen to the book team. Being an avid reader, I had never realised how much it took to decide on a book cover. When the book team presented their findings and research, I was taken aback by their in depth analysis of book covers and forewords. Form the colour scheme, pictorial component to title, i noticed that each part in a book cover was deliberate and carefully thought through such that unconsciously, we as buyers would take notice of it. Our mentors also brought in a publisher and author to talk about the process of publishing a book and writing a book, which is not something that we get to experience normally. Even though I was not in the book team, it was nice to see how they researched and analysed each book.

Overall Reflection

At the point I joined the project, the status of the project is ongoing. Our mentors already had a few topics and speakers that they looked into and developed. The task that I engaged in was to achieve more ideas for topics as speakers, targeting topics interesting to youth to make TEDxSingapore talks still relevant. Our the following approach would be through:

Discussions

Extensive background research spanning several years

Brainstorming

Interviewing

Thinking of different ways to approach a certain topic

I learnt about the criteria of curating an event. To have a well-balanced list of speakers, we would have to take race and gender into account. Not only that, we would have to account for the situations and angle which the idea is presented, so as not tho offend anyone. Finally, I learnt important presentation skills in terms of content, slides and speaking skills. Though I never realised it, may presentations in school were always unstructured and boring. Our mentors, both who have presented many times, gave us so much experience and examples. I learn how to structure my presentation, organise my thought process and design engaging slides. By repeatedly practicing on our presentation skills, I now have skills to make an effective presentation.

Some interesting aspects of my learning would be how i realised that working collectively might seem slower since there were too many different inputs allowed for a deeper discussion. With friends to constantly challenge my ideas and beliefs, I had to present my arguments in a convincing way, and often, I found that many arguments had flaws. Their questioning allowed me to reach the root of what i actually meant, and helped to to express myself in a more articulate manner.

Another aspect was that sometimes to learn, I have to have hands-on experiences. Such was the case with my presentation skills. The more I presented, the better my presentation skills became. I had not realised this until the WOW! the programme was almost over, but the constant presentations and sudden questions that kept me on my toes made me more flexible in thinking and answering.

One final takeaway for this would be that things aren’t always what they seem, and there can always be new wasps to challenge a certain topic. By thinking and expanding topics in different directions, I developed a more macro view of the world rather than a micro view. This skill would definitely be of use to me not just in General Paper, but also in social skills.

WOW! Has taught me many soft skills and changed may ways of thinking, and i am grateful for this opportunity.

Pictures