Tickets to TEDxStanford, an independently organized offshoot of the well-known TED talks series, sold out in less than four hours early Monday, leaving students without a ticket to post on Facebook and email classmates in hopes of gaining entrance to the May 19 event.
The event will also be streamed live free of charge online.
“TEDxStanford was not one person’s idea, but rather an idea that blossomed after numerous students and alumni began discussing it,” said Melinda Sacks, director of media initiatives at Stanford and producer of TEDxStanford. “The Office of Public Affairs is producing the event in partnership with the Graduate School of Business and the School of Engineering.”
A similar prototype event, STAN (Science, Technology, Art and Nature), was produced last year at Stanford in order to test the concept of short talks interspersed with performances.
“It was a great success,” Sacks said. “TEDxStanford was the natural next step.”
TEDxStanford – with the theme this year of “Illumination” – will feature performances from Stanford Taiko and a 14-year-old cello prodigy, as well as talks by speakers including Tom Brokaw, former anchor and managing editor of “NBC Nightly News,” Dean of Freshmen and Undergraduate Advising Julie Lythcott-Haims ’89 and Jason Mayden, director of innovation at Nike, Inc.
“We are lucky that Stanford has so many wonderful stories to tell, such a variety of exciting, cutting-edge research underway and compelling speakers and performers from every school, department and center,” Sacks said, adding that the only real problem while organizing the event was narrowing down which speakers and groups to include in the program.
“It’s not a bad problem to have,” she said.
As opposed to the majority of other TEDx events, for which invitations are by application, the 580 available seats in Cemex Auditorium at the Knight Management Center were distributed on a first-come, first-served basis, with tickets allocated evenly between students, faculty and general admission.
Tickets cost $35 for students, $69 for faculty and staff and $99 for general admission.
Revenue from ticket sales will be the primary source of financial support for the event. Partnerships with the Graduate School of Business and the School of Engineering will help fund the TEDxStanford showcase and reception. Perkins Coie LLC and Ridge Winery also contributed financing to the event.
A team of nine undergraduates assisted the professional staff in planning the event.
“I am pretty confident we will be able to do it well,” said Jay Patel ’14, co-chair of the student organizing committee. “There are obviously so many challenges to overcome, people losing their way and everything, but we can do it.”
Nick Ahamed ’15 was one of the lucky few to claim a ticket.
“I am really excited to be going, but I feel bad that other people couldn’t go,” Ahamed said. “I am most excited about seeing the 14-year old cellist and Tom Brokaw.”