Above: For their 4th birthday, TEDxSKE created this wonderful animation describing just what it’s like to attend a TEDx Salon. Look out for the mentions of food, fun, and…pillow fights?
From the video:
What do we actually do there? After switching the lights off and sitting comfortably in bean bags, we watch three to four TED Talks on the screen or projection.
We then have some time to debate them (always keeping order, of course).…After more than three hours of debate, laughter, and networking, we all say, ‘See you next week,’ looking forward to the next Salon…
Actually, without feeling the time passing by, we spend a couple more hours chatting at the door [and] after some more chatting next to my car, I drive home, feeling all fulfilled … But then I find my dad almost having a heart attack for not finding me home at 2 AM or answering my phone — previously switched to silent mode.
While we heartily encourage intellectual discussion and the use of bean bag chairs, we’d like to recommend that you always check in with loved ones if you’re going to stay out late at a TEDx event.
A touch of history: TEDxBeirut’s 6th salon took place at the Youth and Culture Center (YCC) in Zouk Mikaël, a public library turned cultural center in Lebanon.
“Originally founded as a public library in Zouk Mikaël during the 1940’s, this municipal facility was re-established in April of 2009 as the Youth and Culture Center.
Lebanon’s 15-year civil war greatly hindered the development of the library’s services. It wasn’t until peacetime that the Municipality of Zouk Mikaël called upon a new generation of young architects to conceive a cultural complex, both modern and traditional. In collaboration with the Lebanese University of Fine Arts (ALBA), recognition for achievement was won in a competition launched by the university: this was Lebanon’s first approach at municipal participation.
With the architectural part achieved, this “dream” project had to be financed. The municipal budget was by no means grand, yet with the striving economy, budget management and rationalization of expenditures, the city of Zouk Mikaël managed to inaugurate in April 2009 the first municipal cultural complex in Lebanon: the Youth and Culture Center (YCC).”
TEDx Salon events won’t cut your hair, but will open your mind
TEDxWaterloo Salon
Found in schools, libraries, cafes, restaurants, music clubs, living rooms, and at kitchen tables across the globe, TEDxSalon events are truly community affairs: small gatherings where attendees can eat, discuss, brainstorm, and connect in a more intimate atmosphere than a standard TEDx event.
Set up a screen, screen show-stopping TEDTalks, maybe unwrap a brown bag lunch or share a slice of cake, let a room of inquiring minds engage with some of the most thrilling ideas shaking up the world, and you have a TEDx Salon event.
