City youth discuss humanity, new ideas at TedxSalon

Shyam Sundar, organiser of the TedxNapierBridgeSalon, said the idea was to use TED talks to create an understanding of what would constitute a better future for all of us. “While most TEDx events feature live speakers, we decided to screen curated TED talks on the theme. TEDx is all about ‘ideas worth spreading’ and we wanted to go ahead and see we can incite action on ideas that were already around. We chose the name Napier Bridge because it is a prominent landmark of the city,” said Shyam, who is also the manager at an automobile company. The event also featured a performance by ‘Arun the Mentalist’, an award winning magician and professional mentalist.

TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design), a non-profit entity, is all about spreading ideas, through short, powerful talks by experts. Started in 1984, TED grew to cover all topics from science to business to global issues while the independently-organised TEDx events (conferences and lesson series) focus on sharing ideas with communities around the world. A Salon is basically a gathering of people, to increase knowledge of participants through conversation. 

Salon events are popular across the world but the city has been slow to catch on this trend. Shweta Balambal, a member of the organising team, said, “We conducted a little social experiment and created an ‘idea-tree’, asking people to write down ‘what makes us human’. Each of the 50 participants had a different answer to that question. This multi-dimensional approach is quite interesting to observe,” she said. 

The highlight for many was a chance to meet like-minded people. Sowmya Baskaran, who works as an IT professional, said, “It was great to see people interacting with each other and exchanging ideas. At the end of the day, ideas can trigger action.”