The scene inside the TEDxChandigarh office was full of energy when we visited. Young volunteers were calling sponsors and creating the required alliances. There was another team engaged in passionate discussions in short listing the speakers. The curator was taking a session with another set of volunteers to help articulate points for media partnership. Doing a world class event is not an easy thing. But the team here looked totally in control and buzzing with positivity.
Chandigarh is known for being cleanest, greenest and is one of the most planned cities in the country. Going beyond these wonderful titles, Chandigarh is gearing up to host 1st ever TEDx north of the national capital. Simarpreet Singh and Pritika Mehta, two of the city’s passionate youth made it happen. The event date is set as 15th January 2017 and will take place in Indian School of Business, Mohali Campus.
GNBC team interviewed the event licensees and we asked them about why they put in so much effort to bring TED talks to North of India. Here is what they said –
Pritika speaks, “Seeing the amount of exposure people have in Western Countries, I always wanted that people in North India get the same kind of global exposure. While on call with my friend Simar one day, I floated the idea of organizing TEDx in Chandigarh even though I was in US. It involved a lot of procedure – Application , interview , attending TED Summit etc. We did all the procedure, had a wonderful interview and got a licence. I also went to TED Summit in Banff and get trained from TED on bringing a world class event to Chandigarh. So, here is our gift for our City Beautiful – TEDxChandigarh.” She is is a computer science graduate. After completing her graduation from Chandigarh, she worked with two companies. Soon she realized that she wanted to learn more in the field of artificial intelligence and machine learning. She decided to leave her well paying job and went to State University of New York to pursue MS in Artificial intelligence. During her time in New York, Pritika realized that North Indians, especially Punjabis, were not looked at as an intellectual lot. She was determined to do something to change that image.
Simar speaks, “The junk content is making people dumb. Moreover, the current media relies on fear, passivity and shows wrong kind of role models to us. ‘Yo – yo’ culture is not the only culture that Chandigarh should be known for. This is not the content I want my friends and cousins to grow with. For me, TED is about power of ideas, the power of meeting world class people, the power of listening to life changing talks. TED Talks have inspired me and given me so many perspectives. I want my friends, family and people from North India to experience it. Hence, all these efforts. :)” The other curator of TEDxChandigarh, Simarpreet Singh, is a professional edutainer. He conceptualized, designed and conducted knowledge events which included quizzes, trainings, spellbee shows etc. Simar quit IIM and MICA to focus on ‘experimenting’ with things. Simar calls the educational system as ‘educational abuse’. He worked with top brands like Economic Times, Times of India, Scrum Alliance etc. In the year 2014, Simar was selected as a World Economic Forum Global Shaper and he is now the curator of Chandigarh Hub. As a Global Shaper, Simar has led many projects that have gone viral. He is now the founder and Chief Edutainment Officer of India’s first media edutainment startup (Mindbatteries).
The theme of the event is Dream, Ideate and Create. The event will have a number of world class speakers travelling from different part of the world to Chandigarh to share their life stories. All the speakers are leaders in their domain and represent the super achievers or society. The curators are trying their level best to keep the talks as diverse as possible so that the event can cater to a larger audience. As Simar speaks, “The motivation behind this is to bring Chandigarh to intellectual world map and to bring the world to Chandigarh. The speakers chosen are from altogether different domains so that people are inspired, educated, entertained, challenged, provoked and go home with a new perspective.”
Event Details
Date : 15th January 2017
Time : 9:00 am to 6 pm
Venue : Indian School of Business, Knowledge City, Sector 81, S.A.S Nagar, Mohali, CH, 140306, India
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