TEDxLSU’s popularity is one example of Baton Rouge reaching its potential, Rebecca Burdette, the event’s co-founder, tells 225 in a feature in the February issue.
“When you’ve got hundreds of people showing up for an intellectual event, sharing and connecting with people, that speaks volumes about where we are as a community,” Burdette says.
The local TEDx has grown quite a bit since launching in 2012. The inaugural conference drew 250 people, the maximum allowed for a first-time TEDx event. Last year, 750 people attended. Organizers are planning for 850 this year, but say they accommodate 1,200.
“They wanted to make sure we got it right, before we started allowing a lot of people to come in,” Burdette says, adding the response reveals “a community that’s so hungry for this type of experience. The minute we started putting the word out, people gravitated to it.”
This year’s speakers include Kevin Harris, an orthodontist who developed the local Museum of Public Art; and Shane Li of LSU’s Geometric and Visual Computing Group. The theme is Refracted, meaning alter, shift, redirect or manipulate.
TedxLSU takes place from noon to 7 p.m. on Saturday, March 3, at the LSU Union Theater. General admission tickets cost $65 per person. Tickets cost $25 for high school and college students and $35 for LSU faculty and staff.
Read the full story, which also takes a look at upcoming speaker series like Assembly Required, We Are and PechaKucha Night Baton Rouge. Send your comments to editor@225batonrouge.com.
