TEDx Conference Comes to Princeton Library in NJ
TED spinoff scaled down for a community audience
Kate Fitzsimons -- Library Journal, 04/27/2010
- Hosting public discourse in libraries
- TEDx offers a popular formula
- Persistence in face of state budget cuts
TEDx events, spinoffs of the annual non-profit conference known as TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design), have finally come to the library, as the Princeton Public Library will host TEDxNJLibraries on May 7.
Typically TEDx events, which are free to the public, are hosted by companies, universities, or other organizations, according to Janie Hermann, the programming coordinator of TEDxNJLibraries.
Speakers at TEDxNJLibraries, under the theme “Culture and Community.” include rock musician and UN AIDS ambassador Salman Ahmad of the band Junoon, microcredit pioneer Sam Daley-Harris, restaurateurs and podcasters Mark Pascal and Francis Schott, and Leslie Burger, executive director of the Princeton Public Library (PPL) and former president of the American Library Association.
History of TED
Popularized by the online availability of its lectures, the non-political TED conference (“ideas worth spreading”) features 18-minute talks on everything from robotics to music to sustainable agriculture.
Although TED only holds two large annual conferences—the TED Conference in Long Beach, CA, and TED Global in Oxford, UK—it authorizes and oversees satellite conferences, called TEDx events, in more than 60 countries.
Moving to NJ
Hermann, PPL’s adult program coordinator pushed for a library-hosted TEDx event after discussing it on the Library Garden blog.
“I started talking to several other people before I decided to apply for a TEDx event license,” she said. In the end, PPL has been helped by the South Jersey Regional Library Cooperative, the Central Jersey Regional Library Cooperative and the bloggers of Library Garden.
Community event
"The whole goal is to bring together diverse people and ideas. At our event we'll have about 40 percent librarians. We sought out speakers who could show anyone who was there a new perspective," Hermann explained. "Our goal is to show what public libraries can do on their own as community programming to host a TED event."
Idea franchise
TED takes brand management seriously, closely supervising TEDx events. “There are a lot of rules, but at the same time they give you a lot of help,” said Hermann, noting that TED approves press releases and sponsors.
“Any library that wants to do this needs to have about a six-month lead time," she advised. "It allowed us to brainstorm and find the best possible set of speakers, to do it properly.”
In the face of budget woes
With its six-month lead time, the TEDx event was already on the drawing board before Governor Chris Christie's proposed 74% cut in state aid to New Jersey libraries was announced. “I imagine that Leslie Burger is going to discuss this in her talk,” Hermann said.
The people who helped make TEDxNJLibraries possible are among those most targeted by the proposed budget cuts, as they work for regional library cooperatives that could close by June.
“All of the pilot programs we do in this state go through the library cooperatives,” Hermann said. “Both Amy [Kearns] and Peter [Bromberg], if this doesn't change, will be out of a job and yet they're still going full force. They're really professionals.”
