Are we getting the right minds to inspire at TEDX events in the city? In the past few months, Congress MLA’s son Mohammed Nalapad was called as a speaker at a TEDx event on the ‘Power of Youth in Politics’. A few weeks ago, the young man was arrested for assaulting a youth in Bengaluru. And it makes us question how such decisions are made? Does this give no credibility to such events in the city? We ask the youth, citizens and experts to share their views.
Sandeep, a citizen activist feels that the organisation invites random people. He says, “TEDx is a big disappointment in terms of the TED Talks brand. In TED talks, we were used to very high-quality talks of insightful and disrupt-full but progressive thoughts! But TEDx talks lack that credibility. The average quality of speakers is poor, talks are average, and therefore, I normally ignore TEDx talks. It has no value whatsoever. Some groups have latched on to the TED Talks bandwagon to create events that look like they are driven by commercial motives than to provide any value to society. It is a terrible watering down of the TED Talk’s brand, and if you ask me, it’s a very mistaken strategy of the TED brand owners.”
A psychology student from the city, Wandong Noduruyo feels, “I have attended many TEDx talks which I found were quite relevant to me, as well as the speakers that were involved. But, I’m sure sometimes, it does go wrong on their end too as they might not know the antecedents of the person. That kind of prediction cannot be made while they call a speaker. But I do believe that it should be given way more thought before putting them on a public platform, or else they are just hampering their own organisation.”
But to get to the bottom of the screening procedures, someone from the TEDx community shares his thoughts, Kathan Bhatt, a licensee at TEDxSIBM Bengaluru says, “As far as TEDx at SIBMBengaluru is concerned we follow strict protocols of avoiding questionable personalities who are involved in such type of questionable acts. TEDx is about spreading positivity and the organiser should take care of such cases personally. Moreover, TEDx also reviews such incidents proactively, and that will be reflected in reissuing the licence. TEDx is a global platform and one or two incidents like these shouldn’t hamper the aim of this non-profit organisation.”
