POST EVENT
REPORT
TEDxXavierUniversity
Prepared by: Mary Malanos and Kush Nayak
Xavier University | Office of Student Involvement
TEDxXavierUniversity
WOX INFLUENCEAs a WOX grant recipient, TEDxXavierUniversity was awarded financial and
logistical freedom. We were able to be spontaneous, but also fiscally responsible. Our
well received and unique stage design was a direct result of WOX support. This stage had
a positive impact on those in attendance and will displayed on the TEDx Talks YouTube
Channel which has a national audience. In addition, one of our valued speakers had a
direct connection with WOX (Julie Pugh). This is a partnership we hope to continue in the
future. As the presenting sponsor for TEDxXavierUniversity, WOX allowed us to plan and
produce an event that we are most proud of and that the University and local community
deserve. Our goal is to inspire conversations and spark new, innovative ways of thinking
on campus and in the Greater Cincinnati Area at large. With the WOX grant, we were able
to focus more on the quality in each aspect of our event and the high costs of producing
this event was not a burden on the student- run core planning committee.
THEME SELECTIONChallenge:
- Collaborating as a club to explore a relatable theme for student and local community.
Success:
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Balancing differing perspectives to agree on a broad, malleable theme
At the beginning of the semester, we worked to balance the perspectives of students
with different majors and interests with TEDx’s requirement of developing an inclusive
event theme. In previous years, we had a more direct/steering theme (2015 Hope: A
Driving Force into the Future). However, with increased support from the WOX grant we
were able to facilitate engaging, and dynamic discussions at meetings, which helped us
decide on this year’s theme, Decoding Deception.
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SPEAKER APPLICATION PROCESSChallenge:
- Receiving a large number of applicants, but a disproportional female to male ratio.
- Developing an “idea worth spreading” with each speaker.
Success:
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Leveraging our connections within the community and on campus to generate interest and
increase applicants.
Discovering new connections for future speakers.
Our biggest challenge every year is finding speakers whose “idea worth spreading”
connects to our event theme. This year we were excited to include WOX in our speaker
recruitment and application process. A particular challenge we faced this year concerned
a speaker who had a great idea but a misconception of the ideology of TED. As a team,
we were able to guide this speaker and refine his talk by pinpointing key takeaways. As a
result, the speaker was well received on event day. Overall, we had six diverse and
engaging speakers who made our event one of the most highly rated
TEDxXavierUniversity’s in the past five years.
ON CAMPUS INTERESTChallenge:
- Engaging students from the start of the event to the finish
- Establishing recruitment pipeline
- Working with Student Advertising Resources (digital signage, student weekly news)
Success:
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Kennedy Auditorium remained full from start to finish, we did not have a drop off in audience
presence
Generated strong first time attendance
With the WOX funding we were also able to add a new, technological program called
Kiwi Live to TEDxXavierUniversity. Through our marketing efforts, we connected with a
student on campus who interns with the company and were able to build a relationship
and integrate their services into our event. This platform operates on smartphones and
allowed us to interact and acquire feedback from our audience. We learned that a large
portion of the audience was attending their first TEDx event, how they learned about
TEDxXavierUniversity, and their own personal thoughts on deception. Kiwi Live results act
as a useful tool for TEDxXavierUniversity going forward.
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Pictures taken on Event Day: (Facebook Photo Link)
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