Over the years, TEDx conferences have become a platform to promote ideas worth sharing and bring recognition to local innovators in different fields. Although the conferences have been organised by different groups, 2018 seems like a landmark year in the history of the conference – as for the first time, the event will be ‘zero-waste’.
The team behind the TEDx Tiruvanmiyur conference
Chennai:
With more emphasis being placed on sustainability today, a group of youngsters behind the first edition of TEDx Tiruvanmiyur have conceptualised an event that will run entirely in sync with the zero-waste theme.
In short, the team aims to ensure that all the material they use for the conference can be used again.
Says licensee of the event, Veena Balakrishnan, who will curate the day-long conference with her team, “TED talks have always inspired us to do things. So why not bring some action to the ideas? We wanted this to be an opportunity through which we give back to the society. Most of us know each other from our time working with children in NGOs and we organically came together to conceptualise this idea.”
She goes on, “The idea was to experiment with this platform. The concept of zero-waste is a holistic one, meaning nothing is used that isn’t recyclable or compostable.”
“We don’t use anything that contributes to landfill and optimise resource consumption. There are also reusable alternatives to everything. We hope to sensitise the attendees on the concept,” she says. The event will showcase a range of speakers from different fields such as social entrepreneur Gloria Benny, filmmaker Malini Jeevarathinam and professional poker player Aditya Sushant.
Veena concludes by saying that they also have a consciously curated goodie bag with upcycled, repurposed, zero- waste products that aims to inspire a conscious living among the attendees.
TEDx Thiruvanmiyur will be held on Sunday, 12 August at Holiday Inn, OMR, IT Expressway.