TEDxTWS

In June, the TEDx organisers had their first meeting.

As a school that has organised a TEDxLive, TEDx was not completely new to us - but we still had a lot to plan out and discuss such as answers to questions like what our theme would be, who our speakers would be, how we would select them, and what could be done to make our TEDx event stand out.

After our first meeting we set the main task - brainstorm and finalise a theme.

 

Day and night, the group chat we had was flooded with ideas for themes - but to choose one of them was the most difficult task. There was no shortage of creativity when it came to the suggestions - there were topics in other languages, themes relating to the environment, technology, world issues, etc. but surprisingly, none of them were the theme we selected in the end.

 

Initially we decided on the theme - "dum spiro spero" which translates to "While I breathe, I hope"

Each one of us were completely on board with this idea and went to the principal’s office to discuss it with him. The meeting with him challenged the theme in every way possible and we were left thinking - yes, it's a theme with a nice meaning but as students of the Westminster school does it really suit us?

We needed a theme that was new, bold and showed how strong we are as students and as a school and our ability to take challenges head on. We push limits as we strive towards excellence.

 

"While I breathe, I hope" was simple and suggested that we are all merely living, but not alive.

As we sat there speaking to the principal, I lost focus on the words coming out of his mouth as well as the voices around me and focused on the wall behind him. The colour blue of the wall behind him caught my eye and I thought about how much power and meaning is behind different colours.
It's psychologically proven that colours can affect our mental state. For example warm colours such as red, yellow and orange – can spark a variety of emotions ranging from comfort and warmth to hostility and anger. Cool colours – such as green, blue and purple – often spark feelings of calmness as well as sadness.

And once we left his office to think of new themes, the idea rolled around my head and I said “How about ‘Think blue’?”

 

When you first hear the theme, it sparks an interest – what does that mean? To think in a colour?

I mentioned the idea to the team I was with and although they liked it and more or less agreed on it, we all knew it wasn’t the right theme.

And then we thought – why blue? Why not red?

‘Think red’ it hit us instantly and each one of us knew it was the right theme. It was the right theme because Red is the color of our most chaotic emotions that fuel our strongest actions.
Red is the color of those words and actions that moved people and make them feel rather than hear or see.
Red is the color of passion and hard work put in to anything and everything that matters.
Red is the color of the self-love, love for others, and love for things, moments and life.
It’s the color that only shows itself in the most intense moments of a person’s life.

 

It demands attention in all its fearlessness. Each one of us has a soul as red as blood and fire which we knew would shine out through the words of our speakers and passion of the organizers at our TEDx - and so our theme is ‘Think Red​