TEDx holds the second annual in-person conference
With open arms and wholesome hearts
On April 15, speaker and senior Alexis Garcia practices their TEDx speech in Bolles Theater. Garcia’s speech dives into her involvement with band the past four years and her reflecting as a senior in the program.
The chattering voices amongst the crowd were silenced as the lights began to softly dim. The audience’s attention turned towards Bonita Vista High’s (BVH) Bolles Theater stage. After a brief moment of silence, the spectators hear the clacking of heels on the stage floor as the president of TEDx and senior Bibiana Martinez appears in front of a sign that reads TEDx Bonita Vista HS.
Martinez opened the Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED)x club’s annual conference, which was held on Saturday, April 16. This year’s conference theme was ‘Open Arms, Wholesome Hearts’, which featured speakers from the BVH community such as senior Alexis Garcia and International Baccalaureate (IB) French and Spanish and Advanced Placement (AP) French teacher Marinna Dillingham. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, BVH TEDx was able to organize its first in-person conference. Last year, the conference was held online, making the organization all digital.
“I appreciated the diverse stories, perspectives, and age range [of each speaker]. I liked that a lot of the speakers weren’t just high school students. I liked hearing from the teachers and other people who are involved in Bonita Vista High School on a closer, personal level,” attendee and senior Camielle Delacruz said.
According to Martinez, TEDx is run differently than most clubs at BVH because the club is more collaborative and does not have a “rigid” hierarchy. Within TEDx, there are various departments that one can work in. There is the speaker’s department, finance, public relations, and technology. There’s also a stage design aspect that is part of the speakers’ department. lib
“My favorite year has definitely been this year. The experience of planning an event is crazy,” Martinez said. “It’s a complex [process], coordinating everyone to do the right thing at the same time. But I like the challenge of doing a good event and impacting people.”
Senior and Head of Technology Michael Dimaphilis came up with the theme. The club, according to Martinez, thought about the lack of connection amongst the BVH community after the COVID-19 pandemic. Martinez believes that the idea of social distancing fosters a sense of individualism which she does not agree with. As a resolve, TEDx strived to bring communities back together through this conference’s theme. The team acknowledged that the pandemic brought a lot of change. However, they feel that everyone needs to accept that change and come back together.
“We’re not going to be the same after COVID-19 and I don’t want to be the same, I want to evolve. I want our communities to grow and expand. So I feel that’s a part of our speech to look back at the accomplishments we have with our community, but also to see the future and see how much we can grow,” Martinez said.
For this year’s conference, there were many intervening factors that challenged the TEDx conference. Ultimately, the team had to obtain permission to use Bolles Theater. In addition, they were tasked with integrating the use of technology to make the conference presentable. Furthermore, the club experienced trouble coordinating the speakers to attend on the same day. Various speakers were canceled because they could not attend due to prior commitments or conflicting dates.
“The space to hold it in was tricky. We did it in the gym the first year but sports made it challenging. Then there were consistent reminders that it could go back online. There was a lot of fear,” TEDx advisor Jason Good said. “So students talked about different venues and ways to respond in the event that it did go online.”
At the beginning of ticket sales, TEDx had a table where people could purchase tickets. Though they quickly realized that they were not selling tickets fast enough. To increase ticket sales, the club began advertising by word of mouth. They went to IB and AP classes to gather interest in the conference. With this method, the group found success in their ticket sales and eventually sold out of tickets.
“The team works [well] together. I know that they’re excited about the speakers. They’ve come up with some cool creative ways to make this conference. I think they’re happy that they sold the number of tickets they had plans to sell. It makes them happy that it’s going to be in person,” Good said.
Selling out the conference meant that people would be going to support the team and watch the speakers perform. Speakers like Garcia were invited by Martinez to speak at the conference. Martinez explained that she wanted to represent Club Blue at the conference, and therefore wanted Garcia to speak on their experience. Garcia then explained how they missed the opportunity to meet the other speakers and were blindsided and amazed when they saw the rest of the speakers speak for the first time on Saturday.
“I thought it was just going to be a small student-run thing. It was done well, and since I didn’t realize it was a real official TEDx thing, my expectations were completely different until about two months ago. Coming in I thought, ‘Wow, this is amazing.’ Seeing the stage and everything, it was nice,” Garcia said.
Garcia was the first speaker at the conference. According to Garcia, speaking at the conference was a cool experience. They were the only BVH student speaker.
“Being on the stage is intimidating, but once I got into it, it became a lot easier. When people chuckled at my bad jokes, that made me feel better,” Garcia said.
Watching in support of her friend, Garica, was Delacruz. She attended because she knew a lot of people who were involved in creating this event. Furthermore, she was also excited to see the other speakers such as Dillingham, who is one of Delacruz’s teachers.
“I would say I liked Miss Dillingham’s speech because I’ve had her as a teacher and I am familiar with the way that she teaches over the pandemic. You do see a lot of her personal experiences and life stories involved in the lesson. To see that paired with even more insight into her life, her relationship with her son, and how that led to her support for the LGBTQ+ community, it was cool to see as well,” Delacruz said.
Dillingham herself had previously been asked four times to speak at the BVH TEDx conference in past years, however, she turned most requests down. That did not stop Martinez–she had persistently and diligently asked Dillingham to speak at the conference. In Dillingham’s words, Martinez eventually “wore her down” and she gave in.
“I’ve never done anything like this before. I’ve seen a few TED talks, but I don’t watch a lot of them, so I didn’t have any idea what it was going to be like. I didn’t expect to have to memorize an almost 20-minute long [speech],” Dillingham said. “It was a new experience for me. I think it was great. It was interesting to write the speech, memorize it, to try to say it without messing up. I think it was a rewarding experience.”
Dillingham explains that despite being uncomfortable with trying something new, doing activities such as this conference forces a person to reflect on their own life. She notes that performing at the conference was a “good little trip down memory lane” for a lot of things in her life.
“I’m just happy I got a chance to participate. I’m glad they insisted because I did enjoy it. I would probably do it if I was asked again. Once you do it one time, it’s easier to do it a second time. Like everything, with experience, things become easier,” Dillingham said.
I am a senior at Bonita Vista High and this is my second year on staff. I’ve always liked how unbiased and informative the crusader was and it was a...
I am a senior at Bonita Vista High School and this is my second year on staff. I joined newspaper in order to achieve my full potential with my writing...
