Volunteering, TEDxKyoto Style

Hello everyone.

Amid teaching at a variety of schools and businesses and untangling the web of online school insanity in which we have found ourselves entangled, I've been volunteering.

It was a little like the story "The House that Jack Built".  Bob teaches at Ritsumeikan University.  Jay, one of the co-founders of TEDxKyoto teaches at Ritsumeikan University.  The two words "Christina" and "writes" were lumped together and I found myself invited to lend my often times questionable writing and proofreading skills to the TEDxKyoto cause.

So for the past few months I've been proofreading informational and publicity documents.  I've also been writing up the biographical paragraphs for the speakers.  And the closer it got to the big day--Sunday, September 16th--the faster I wrote.

Now, for those of you who have never heard of TED or TEDx, let me give it to you in a nutshell.

TED is an acronym that stands for "Technology" "Entertainment" and "Design".  TED is a non profit organization dedicated to simply spreading great ideas.  "TED" is used for the official annual conferences.  There are now over 900 TEDTalks available for free on Youtube or on the TED websites or iphone and ipad applications.  

"TEDx" events are TED-styled experiences done at local levels.    Sunday's event was the first major event for TEDxKyoto.

So it was a big deal. 

And the entire event was  powered by volunteers.   

University professors and college students, foreign residents and Japanese of all ages, backgrounds, and professions--you name it, they were volunteering.  

 This picture of the volunteers  was taken right before the end of Sunday's event.  I'm lurking on the right (not that you can actually see me, but I'm there).  And this wasn't even everyone.  There were still many volunteers manning the cameras and sound systems and setting up the reception area for the dinner which followed.  

The event was fabulous.  It was an all day  commitment even for attendees--from 10:00am to 8:30pm.  For the volunteers it was a much longer day.   Many  of the volunteers had spent  all of Saturday setting up, testing the video feeds, the lighting, preparing the supplies and decorations for the refreshments and meals that were provided throughout the day.  Speakers stayed much of Saturday to  practice their presentations.  

So while I'm pretty proud that people were reading my words on the programs and here and there on the website (at least the English words!), I'm not fooling myself.  My part was a tiny piece of the whole.  In addition to writing I became a "gopher" on the day of  the event, filling in wherever help was needed.  And it was great and exhausting and filled with that sense of chaotic belonging that comes from being a wee cog in the midst of a great machine.  

And it was extremely humbling.  The speakers were experts in their fields--mathematicians, archaeologists, writers, detectives, musicians, film makers, robot engineers....the list goes on.  But in the context of "putting on the show" we were all just people.  Up on that stage each speaker and performer was a star and a visionary.  Back stage they were new friends.   In addition to the speakers and performers, I was surrounded by a sea of other volunteers.  And each of them were new friends as well.

Now you may ask, was it worth it?  Was all the writing worth it?  And on the day of the event, was all the running, sweating, fetching, prepping  and sore, sore feet worth it? 

Absolutely.  

In fact, I'm already working with a few people on laying the foundations for a youth-focused TEDx event called "TEDxYouth-Kyoto".  

Here we go again! 

Until next time...