TEDxFIU receives instant mass following

It’s official: TEDxFIU is happening this fall, and hundreds already have lined up.

One day after Senior Vice President for External Relations Sandra Gonzalez-Levy sent an email to the university community announcing that FIU would host a TEDx event, more than 320 people subscribed to receive TEDxFIU news and organizers already have received eight applications to present.

“I wanna go!” Panther Danny Zambrano wrote on FIU’s Facebook post announcing the event. Another fan wrote: “This is awesome, thanks for helping us be and stay ‘Worlds Ahead.’”

In announcing the event Aug. 1, Gonzalez-Levy said FIU would “join a global movement meant to bring together some of our greatest minds.”

TEDxFIU will be held Thursday, Nov. 15, starting at 5:30 p.m. at the Herbert and Nicole Wertheim Performing Arts Center at the Modesto A. Maidique Campus. The event, which will be free and open to the FIU community, will feature faculty, alumni and students sharing their ideas on how to change the world, Gonzalez-Levy said.

TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design. In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED- like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x=independently organized TED event.

The theme for TEDxFIU is “Beyond the World You Know.” Organizers are looking for speakers from the FIU community who have world changing ideas big and small from any discipline.

“FIU has so many smart and interesting people with great ideas,” said TEDxFIU organizer Eduardo Merille, who is also the FIU director of marketing and new media. “We have a lot to contribute to the TED conversations going on around the world.”

Anyone interested in being a speaker should visit the TEDxFIU.com. The deadline to apply to be a speaker is Sept. 14. Speakers will be announced on Oct. 1, and tickets will be distributed shortly thereafter. To receive regular TEDxFIU updates, please click here.

This independent TEDx event is operated under license from TED.