On Feb. 26, I attended TEDxYYC – the first ever TED community event in Calgary. On a personal note, I thought the afternoon was amazing.

After the event, I sat down with 2 of the TEDxYYC organizers who pulled off a fantastic and inspiring afternoon. Here is our discussion with two of the organizers, Kevin Rosmanitz, a copywriter here at Critical Mass, and Alex Middleton, an independent PR Specialist.

CM: Before we talk about bringing TED to Calgary, why don’t you tell us a little about TED?

Kevin: TED stands for Technology Entertainment and Design. It’s a non-profit organization devoted to ideas worth sharing. Speakers from Bono to Bill Clinton to Herbie Hancock to Bill Gates share their ideas in the hope that they can change attitudes, lives and ultimately the world. That’s the company line at least – for us it was about bringing smart, passionate people together so that they can connect and make Calgary a better city.

CM: How did you get the idea to create TEDxYYC?

Kevin: TED started the TEDx program last year in order to make the TED concept more accessible. The TED organization itself hosts two conferences a year in Long Beach, California and Oxford, England. Obviously for a majority of individuals it is hard to get a ticket to these events. With the TEDx program any group in any city in the world is able to apply for a license to host an event.

CM: It must have been hard at times. What were the biggest challenges you guys faced?

Alex: The two biggest challenges were deciding on speakers and deciding on attendees. There are so many bright, passionate people that have ideas worth sharing and we received many suggestions from Calgarians that narrowing it down to nine meant that we had many lively discussions amongst committee members. The second biggest challenge was selecting attendees. We would have loved to accept everyone that applied for a ticket but TED mandates that we were only allowed to sell 100 tickets for our first event. We wanted a broad demographic of people to attend – people from all walks of life who are passionate about TED and who are doing great work in our community.
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