This coming Sunday, April 27 at 6 p.m., TEDxBucknellUniversity will take to the Harvey M. Powers stage. The Bucknellian spoke with the club’s president and lead coordinator, Joe Dox ’25, to gain some insight into the event and the club as a whole. This year’s theme is “The Power of Perspective,” in which the club hopes to spark conversation and broaden people’s viewpoints through sharing various perspectives and personal life experiences.
“It was derived with a foundation in community, the impact of actions (both big and small), morals and motivations, as well as the concept of taking risks and getting out of your comfort zone,” the TEDxBucknellUniversity website states. “We aim to break down the barriers that surround our daily lives and open conversation about how our perspectives influence our judgment of the world around us.”
“The goal of this specific TEDxBucknellUniversity event is to engage students with powerful speakers in their own campus community and offer the chance to take an hour out of their day to engage in the spreading of new ideas,” Dox explained. “TED talks are a specific style of talk. It’s not necessarily a lecture, and it’s not a personal speech or soliloquy. It’s more of a conversation with the audience through open-ended questions that cause those listeners to think differently.”
TEDxBucknellUniversity is an independently organized event licensed by the company TED, widely known for its TED Talks, through a university license that provides the group with resources and the notoriety of the TEDx name. Though the event is happening at Bucknell, this connection will lead to the talks eventually being uploaded to the official TEDx YouTube where they can reach a wider audience.
The Bucknell branch of TEDx began in 2015 and was founded by students, along with Keith Buffinton, who at the time was the Dean of Engineering and a Mechanical Engineering professor. They held annual TEDx events up until 2019, but membership began to peter out once the COVID-19 pandemic hit. In Fall of 2022, student Sahana Paravantavida ’23 started the club back up with the plans of having an event in the following spring semester. Being a close friend of Paravantavida and having an interest in events management, Dox joined the club that same spring.
“Being a technical theatre student, I knew what it took to run a smooth event both technically and logistically from a live entertainment perspective,” Dox said. “This led me into my current role today as TEDxBucknellUniversity’s Lead Organizer.”
The rest of the club’s executive board is composed of Event Manager and Co-Organizer/Vice President Christian Wall ’26, Curator Angel Yanga ’28, Marketing and Design Director Nina Liloia ’26 and Treasurer Mike Russak ’26.
“The club is open to all students, and a majority of the club is spent either watching TED talks during biweekly meetings or making plans for event logistics or curation,” Dox continued. “We also have roles in marketing, event logistics, design and video production. There are lots of opportunities for students to do something they like and enjoy, and our club commitment is very much what you want it to be, whether it is highly involved or not.”
As for the event speakers, the opportunity is open to anyone that is interested. Students, staff, retired or active faculty, alumni and Lewisburg community members alike are invited to apply; in 2023, the mayor of Lewisburg was a speaker.
“It is a great opportunity for students to work on public speaking skills at a professional level,” Dox said. “Being a TEDx speaker is a lot of responsibility and work, but anyone can do it if they put in the effort because of how the event is curated to the TED talk style.”
This year’s speakers are current professor Annetta Grant, Director for the Perricelli-Gegnas Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation Erin Jablonski, along with professor emeritus and the founder himself, Keith Buffinton, whose bios can be found on the TEDxBucknellUniversity website. The speakers were determined by the club members, along with guidance from their advisor, Associate Provost Joseph Tranquillo. Speakers had to apply and go through an interview process, after which the selection committee meets to review candidates and select speakers. This process began in October and ended prior to winter break in order to give speakers sufficient time to prepare their talks. Talks can be as short as six minutes and at maximum 18 minutes, with most of them hovering around 12 minutes.
“This year is unique because we had a couple students apply, but only faculty and a retired faculty member moved forward,” said Dox. “It was really hard to decide, but I think that overall we made the right decision. We have powerful speakers who have something to share. I look forward to seeing how others react to their talks.”
Dox encourages any interested students to reach out at tedx@bucknell.edu and stop by one of their biweekly meetings. “If you want to get highly involved,” he adds, “we will find a place for you.”
