The University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC) is getting ready to host a TEDx speaker series event later this year.
The independently organized TED event will be held for the first time in northern B.C. TED is a nonprofit devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short (18 minutes or less) talks.
The open call for speakers has concluded with TEDx UNBC receiving a total of 111 applications, of which five to 10 will be chosen.
Grant Bachand, president and curator of TEDx UNBC, said the successful applicants will be chosen within the next few weeks. He added that applications received ranged greatly.
鈥淲e鈥檙e seeing quite a nice mix of people; we鈥檝e seen students, and all the way up to faculty,鈥� he said. 鈥淚鈥檓 confident that the ones we鈥檒l pick will be a nice mix and not just one set of people.鈥�
The theme of the event will be 鈥渄ispelling misconceptions.鈥�
鈥淲e鈥檙e looking to take something that we commonly hold in society, or it may be a myth or some sort of belief, and present a new way of looking at it,鈥� explained Bachand. 鈥淎ll the ideas that we鈥檙e looking at are things that reorient the way that we look at certain aspects in our society, whether it be in science or culture.鈥�
Bachand said he hopes this will become an annual event in northern B.C.
鈥淭his has been my goal since the beginning,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e hoping that from the successful applicants of this event we鈥檒l create a TED community in Prince George, and hopefully in other communities such as 亚洲天堂 Lake, so that this can be a sustained thing and people in the community will step forward and organize this every year.鈥�
鈥淲e鈥檙e seeing such a great amount of support, not just because I have 111 applications in front of me, but also because we have so many people who are coming on as partners of the event, and so many people who just want to volunteer,鈥� he added.
Although tickets for TED events can sometimes be sold for $10,000, Bachand said TEDx events are usually much more affordable.
鈥淲e鈥檙e still trying to figure out what the price will be, so we鈥檙e not ready to announce it yet, but the most they [TEDx events] will ever charge is $100,鈥� he said.
The event will be held on Sept. 30, 2017 at UNBC. For people who are not able to attend the event, videos of the speakers will eventually be posted online. For more information, visit https://www.tedxunbc.com/
