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.