Moving talks

When one thinks of  Ted Talks the first image that pops up in the mind is that of a huge hall with speakers and guests who are waiting to hear them. But, taking a break from AC halls and everything related to just talks were the members of TEDxHyderabad recently. Last week, 10 thought leaders and 30 guests were part of a moving bus event. “It’s called the salon event and it isn’t your usual Ted Talk,” says Viiveck Verma, co-organiser of TEDxHyderabad.

This was the first “moving bus” Tedx event in the world. “We also got featured under the innovation initiative by TED.” When you ask Viiveck why they came up with the idea to go on a small tour he says, “Most of the time the speaker is in some huge hall giving a talk on a very important issue. But, the implementors are far away. We wanted to bring the speakers and implementors together at the place where this issue is taking place, so that we could see what the practical problems are. So we came up with this concept.”

The topics were simple and very relevant to the city. “The two problems right now that Hyderabad is facing are water conservation and traffic,” he explains. So, after a session at Raahgiri   where the group educated people about water conservation, the bus left for Gandipet. Where they drove near the dry bed of the lake and we watched various talks. The group then discussed what could be done to conserve water, now that the monsoon is a month away. After that, the next place that the bus stopped was the city Traffic Control Room. “There we discussed traffic issues that plague us. The additional DGP of Police hosted there,” he adds.

For now, the Salon event has a lot of takers and the organisers are gearing up for more events on the moving bus. Viiveck says, “We have one event about healthcare in May and two events on art and education in June. All these events will take place at areas that have a connection with the topics.”