TEDxUNC tickets sell out in minutes, leaving waiting list

Within four minutes of their release, tickets for the 2013 TEDxUNC conference sold out, leaving 500 people on the waiting list.

Co-founder and co-director Rachel Myrick said this year’s TEDxUNC has grown substantially from last year in terms of scale. The location was changed from the FedEx Global Education Center to Memorial Hall to allow for a larger audience.

“In general, we’re feeling more excited this year. There’s been an incredible response from campus,” Myrick said. “We’re fully booked — even though it’s 9 a.m. on a Saturday morning for college students.”

Senior Alex Almeter, director of finance for the organizing committee, said this year’s growth has essentially caused the cost of the conference to double from last year.

In order to accommodate the large number of those interested, organizers turned to technological outlets.

Saturday’s TEDxUNC conference will feature a live stream on the website live.tedxunc.com to make the talk accessible to larger numbers. It will also be streamed to projectors in Carroll Hall and potentially the Student Union, Myrick said.

“There was a strong demand for the live stream capability,” said TEDxUNC co-founder and co-director Mackenzie Thomas. “Thus we recognized that we were able to expand so incredibly this year.”

Organizers have also created a mobile app for the event to allow attendees a deeper engagement in the conference. It provides access to the conference’s agenda and speaker biographies, as well as the integration of TEDxUNC social media.

Despite rising costs, the event still remains free. This is in compliance with the TEDx contract, and organizers said it’s part of their personal philosophies.

“We believe the event should be free as it allows a greater access to the talk and spreading the mission of the ideas of the conference,” Almeter said.

Myrick attributed much of the success of the conference to the efforts of the organizing groups.

“The collective hours of work are quite a lot, but it’s fortunate that we have so many different strengths and skill sets that we can bring to the table,” she said.

While Myrick said she believes all of the talks will be excellent, she is most looking forward to hearing UNC senior Stirling Little’s talk on gender harassment in video games, entitled “Excuse me, Princess.”

“I’m really excited for that moment where he gets to shine in front of all of his peers,” she said.

Organizers said they have high hopes for this year’s conference and that the talks will continue as an annual event at UNC.

“It’s really stressful but also very exhilarating to see all of the pieces fall into place at a time where most of us have slept very little and eaten very little,” Thomas said. “But it’s all for the greater good of the conference — we’re feeling very strong.”

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