TEDxTufts held its seventh annual conference from April 9–11, featuring 10 virtual TEDxTufts Talks and performances. The theme, "REBOOT," was a nod to both the virtual aspect of the event as well as the potential for growth and change coming out of the pandemic.
"This year our speakers are really recontextualizing old theories and they're readjusting in the current moment, given current events and COVID," TEDxTufts curator Simone Barr said. "It's sort of acknowledging that pause that takes place right before you begin again in a new direction."
She expanded on this, acknowledging the impact the current circumstances had on the content of the presentations at this year's conference.
"We're really excited this year to share stories and suggestions for how to begin again in new directions, especially since we've had so much time to pause and reflect in quarantine," Barr, a junior, said. "There's a lot of value in being very intentional with how we power back up again."
Speakers included people from a wide variety of interests and industries. Supriya Sanjay (LA'19), a software development engineer II at Amazon Robotics, gave a talk titled "Have You Tried Restarting It? Rebooting Diversity in the Tech Industry." Kudrat Dutta Chaudhary (F'19), an international lawyer working in gender-based violence claims, presented "Patriarchy and Its Pillars: How We Can Crumble the System." Tufts professor of mathematics Bruce Boghosian delivered a talk called "The Mathematics of Oligarchy."
"All of our speakers are very different," executive organizer Saherish Surani said. "Everything is about the current moment that we're in, but also how to look at it again and decide where to go."
The event took place over three days, with two-hour sessions held each day. The organizers said that one challenge of adjusting to the virtual format was maintaining the interpersonal aspects of a typical TEDxTufts conference and its ties to the community.
"This is our seventh annual event holding an official TED license, and every other year it's been on stage in front of people," Surani, a senior, said. "For the past couple of years we've sold out Cohen [Auditorium], we were program of the year, and I think for us it's been a lot about having this one day that's not just about the talks, but it's also about building community, interacting and really being able to start spreading ideas."
According to Barr, TEDxTufts partnered with an outside film production company to produce high-quality speaker content and showcase the ideas of the talks in an engaging way. The videos were all prerecorded, mostly in Curtis Hall.
"We had a lot of fun working with the external team to make sure that we have a lot of different angles and graphics," Barr said. "It was a lot of fun to try our hand at something that we've never really done before, since live performance is what we're used to."
Although it was virtual, organizers said they prioritized maintaining the interactive elements of a typical conference, and the event involved community partnerships in a variety of formats.
"Every night at intermission there [was] an opportunity to have a speaker sit down … and every night we also [had] a different interactive session," Surani said. "[We partnered] with the Tufts Calligraphy Club and local businesses like MEM TEA and Seasonal Intentions."
Sarabande Dance Ensemble also performed each night, presenting works choreographed by students.
Another part of REBOOT's connection to local vendors was a gift box that attendees could purchase with their tickets that connected to the theme of the conference.
"Our event is more than just talks, it's also an experience, and we really thought about how to get that experience translated to people's homes or bedrooms, or wherever they were going to watch the event," executive organizer Ava Soltani, a senior, said. "So we made a curated box to encapsulate some of the talks [and] have that local community."
Emphasizing accessibility, Surani noted that the box was an optional add-on, but that anyone could watch the talks and participate by reserving a free spot through Tufts Tickets.
"This is also the first time in TEDxTufts history that we have a completely free ticket option as well," Surani said.
