Bridging all the gaps!

Formed in 2015, TEDxNapier Bridge is an independent community of TEDx in Chennai. After a long break, the team has brought a never before concept to the city. As part of the TEDWomen talk that is scheduled to happen in New Orleans, TEDxNapier Bridge has curated a day-long event with interesting speakers from different backgrounds to talk about bridges. The event is for all genders.

Elaborating on the topic, Sowmya Baskaran, the curator of the event, says, “New Orleans is a city of bridges... thus the topic was decided upon. Bridges can mean anything — it can be about time (the journey from the past to the future or vice-versa), the one that connects people, the one that stands for a revolution and more. Our speakers will talk about events in their lives or inspiring stories they heard that connect to the topic ‘bridge’.”

With an all-women team of 10, who co-organise different segments like marketing, curation of the speakers, event in-charge, partnerships and a few more designations, the team at TEDxNapier Bridge has created a milestone for itself. “We are from different occupational backgrounds. We have a student, a journalist and a variety of professions in our group. We have different work timing but we make sure to meet every Saturday and plan for the week ahead,” reveals Indra Deepak, a co-organiser.

When asked about the speakers, the team is still keeping the list, a secret! However two big names are already official — IAS TN Venkatesh and dancer Aarabi Veeraraghavan. “There is one more celebrity who will be talking at our meet. Everyone surely knows her but not about the incredible work she’s been doing outside her profession. Her name is a surprise and we’ll announce it close to the event date. Also, since this is a gender-inclusive event, we are also planning to call in a transgender achiever, but as of now, it isn’t confirmed,” shares Sowmya. 

Affirming that all stories will be new, she continues, “We love diversity; so all stories are different and it’ll be the first ever time that people are hearing such stories. Also, the guests chosen are not based on any star value — it’s just the inspiring stories and as our tagline goes, ‘Ideas worth spreading’.”

With almost 2-3 weeks of coaching for the speakers about the content, narration style and more, the team has worked for about two months to get the license, gather the speakers and arrange the location. “I met them before a couple months and working with an all-women team has been a really brilliant experience,” shares Indra. Stating that the other centres also help out with finding the right guests, she adds, “It’s not a competition between different centres. We help each other out. For the upcoming event which expects a crowd of about 150 people, most guest speakers are from Chennai and some are from other Indian cities.”

Talking about the breaks between events, Sowmya concludes, “It does take time to acquire license and come up with something creative. This is our second event this year. We are hosting regular team meetings. After the all-women event, we have planned something that revolves around food and you can expect the event to be scheduled in December 2017 or January 2018.”

(The event is scheduled on  November 5 at Anna University)