I was asked to write a blog on myself, but there is more to me than just my name. I’m Conference Design, and this is a blog on how I became. Sometimes I’m hard to manage and there’s so many aspects I have to cover, I’ll take you through the flow of how TEDxDonmills will be on top of your Instagram’s Discover!
Before I share the names of my best friends, I’d like to give thanks and mention my sisters: I love you Program Design, Marketing and Communications, Partnership, Community Engagement, Program Design, and obviously, the Chair, but I’ll still beat you all in a game of Twister. My team consists of 5 brilliant superstars, from the food we’ll consume, to the artists we will enjoy, the one who has designed the experience, to the two leads who started it all. The theme, Designing Tomorrow, means a lot as I figure my life out, here are how my friends think I’ll become the brightest of the stars.
Let’s start with the two who have helped me grow from the start, Erika and Mobeen, who are the Executive Leads. I’ll go ahead and share their conference flow chart!
We hope you bring your smiles early in the morning to get your name tags, tote bags, and high fives from my team – if you come a little earlier than early, enjoy some breakfast, so you don’t daydream!
We’ll start with the talks (a line-up so mind-boggling and interesting) to watching some performers hit the stage to take us into their frequency. After two quarters we’ll enter our lunch, even though I don’t have a stomach, I feel for you and understand you’ll need the energy, unless you’ve had a brunch.
My friends have invited many community friends who hope to engage with you all and bring you opportunity. This is the time I want you to talk to one another (a new friend, maybe), as I wish this is a start for you to find something beyond your dreams, so enter in attempt to reach for the stars together, share your ideas and finally become a team.
We will all enter my wonderful stage for the second half to continue our line-up, and like the Raptors, we hope to win you like Lowry hitting the three to win the matchup. The fourth quarter will make me the saddest, as all the hard work my family as put in will come for closure. But when something ends, that’s the beginning of something even BIGGER.
The day will end with a bang, I won’t tell you every detail as of now, but let’s just say all my family and friends will then take their final bow. As you leave my auditorium, you all will have a chance to explore the wondrous Aga Khan Museum, the place I call my home, which I hope will leave you with a sense of gratitude and sense of hope.
Together, let’s enter this journey, talk after talk, we’ll walk through the museum with our ideas on lock. Let’s work together, encouraging dialogue, because trust me, as we Design our Tomorrow, we’ll want to make sure no one remains in the fog.
Now that we know about the flow, let me share a little more about the team. To learn more about my friends, I asked them a few questions on how this journey has been!
What does Designing Tomorrow mean to you?
Larysa (Director of Conference Design)
Through designing the conference experience, we were looking to achieve a few messages using, colour, symbols, and the museum space. The message was to convey the idea that the future is super close and we can all influence it together by sharing our ideas through various forums, but effectively through TEDx. For me one of the symbols of the conference is the ‘Red Door’; It’s a portal to the future in the traditional TEDx colours, the delegates will be able to use this ‘door to the future’ by taking pictures and interacting with it!
Hina (Director of Catering)
The theme, Designing Tomorrow, to me means freedom and innovation. It allows individuals to express their ideas, beliefs and research and share it with the world. Being able to speak openly about any topic one chooses is empowering. Listening to these forums and videos allows us to understand and expand our knowledge beyond our own experiences and to see topics from a different perspective.
Amyna (Director of Arts)
The theme of Designing Tomorrow is weaved through all of the performances throughout the day. We have a line-up of performers that span various age groups and that come from a multitude of places and cultural backgrounds. Each piece sheds light upon the beauty of our individual identities, whilst celebrating the importance of mutual respect and the strength of our collective diversity.
What are some of your passions or something you wish to do in the next 10 years?
Larysa (Director of Conference Design)
In the next 10 years, I hope to be hiking through the parks in Canada, breathing unpolluted Toronto air and knowing that people have worked together to cure cancer and prevent diabetes – and that the TTC has become the best public transportation system in the world!
Hina (Director of Catering)
I am passionate about food, technology and people. I hope to be able to combine my passions and create a difference in the world by bringing people together and thinking of innovative ideas to improve our future.
Amyna (Director of Arts)
One of my deepest passions is expressing myself through the art form of dance. In the next 10 years, I hope to continue to feed this passion not only as a stage performer but also as a student, a mentor and an art curator. I hope to continue learning about production, strengthen my storytelling skills as well as my technical abilities in various forms of dance and provide a platform for others to do the same (just as TEDxDonMills is doing).
Ah, aren’t my friends just fascinating? I’m sure you want to know them, be friends with them, that’s all that I’m saying. But that’s all from me, for now that is - no more delaying.
ConfDev, signing out here, have to get back to planning, so Mobeen and Erika, hit the snare.
*bah dam tisssss*