TEDx BocconiU: Nine Speakers Explore What Connecting and Disconnecting Is All about
A STUDENT ASSOCIATION HAS ENTHUSIASTICALLY COOPERATED WITH THE UNIVERSITY IN THE ORGANIZATION OF THE 12 APRIL EVENT AND THEIR EXPECTATIONS ARE HIGH. VERY HIGHThe time to reap the fruits of their labor is coming for the TEDx BocconiU student association. They’ve been working since last September side-by-side with University staff to organize <dis>connect, the TEDx BocconiU 2019, and on 12 April they will see their creature take form: 5 hours of ideas worth spreading, as the TED payoff goes, and live performances, with nine confirmed speakers and two performers.
«We are a truly international association», says the President, Dimitris Papachristou, from Greece, a third-year BIEM student. «Twenty-five students have been involved: 12 Italians and 13 from other countries» (pictured above, the best part of them).
All of them are driven by a genuine enthusiasm for the TED format and its transformational effects. «When I decided to come to Bocconi», says Sanjana Komali, a first-year ACME student from India, part of the TEDx BocconiU marketing team, «I sifted through the list of student associations and I chose to join TEDx BocconiU because associations are usually about one idea, while TEDx is a platform for the best ideas, wherever they come from»,
Javi Amador, Filipino, a second-year BIEM student and head of the marketing team, is a TEDx veteran. «My middle-school teachers used TED videos as an educational tool and I was involved in the organization of the TEDx of my high-school, the first Asian high-school to host a TEDx. At Bocconi I was in the team that looked for partners last year and now I’ve moved to marketing this year».
«I love TED talks», says Marie-Claire Lenhard, a first-year BIEM student from Germany, «and I’ve always wanted to know the speakers, that are gifted and inspirational people. Furthermore, I’ve a 6-month English teaching experience in China and I love helping people. Thus, it was natural to join the team that selects and train speakers».
The topic of the event, <dis>connect, was chosen at the end of a general, brainstorming meeting of the association, that Javi remembers as his most meaningful experience with TEDx BocconiU: «It was a magic moment. We were truly sharing ideas, we were connected as never before or after».
The speakers’ final lineup is unconventional even for Marie-Claire of the speakers team - «and this is the TEDx richness», she says. The <dis>connect thing can, in fact, be tackled by many different angles. Stefano Boeri, the Bosco Verticale architect, will talk about the connection between humans and nature; Roberta Cocco, Councilor for Digital Transformation at the Municipality of Milan, about the use of digital technology to solve traditional problems; Paola Dubini, a Bocconi professor, about the disconnection of culture, business, and politics; Aida Loggiodice, one of the winners of the Student Speaker Competition, about the negative effect that social media and technology have on our lives; Massimo Morelli, a Bocconi professor, about the problems that arise when we search for national solutions to global issues in the current political era; Chiara Natali, the other winner of the student competition, about the value of creativity in understanding and connecting with our deeper selves; Vicki Pasterski, a psychologist, about gender identity assessment during gender transitions; Dijana Pavlovic, an actress and activist, about the discrimination of the Roma community in Italy; Gianluca Sgueo, a professor at New York University Florence, about gamification in politics.
«I now realize that <dis>connect is indeed about connecting», Sanjana says, «about being active within our own community and being “in the present”».
The students have great expectations for the day of the event. «I hope that people will laugh and will cry, I hope they will connect with other people and will take away something not for the evening, but for their entire lives», Marie-Claire summarizes.
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by Fabio Todesco
