You may have heard of TED talks. Technology, Entertainment, Design is a global conference series and "Ideas worth spreading" is their slogan. You may not have, however, heard of TEDxConnecticutCollege.

Every year we hold our own TED conference. The idea behind the TEDx program is for individual organizers to spark conversation on a local level. It's entirely student-organized and brings together speakers from within and beyond our community. This year, the theme was “genius loves company.” Upon entering Cummings that morning — and after enjoying the Panera bagels and homemade donuts — we each received a nametag featuring a silhouette of either Sherlock or Watson. I was a Watson and the goal was for me to find a Sherlock to converse with. To help with this, each person wrote a topic of conversation on his or her nametag. Some people wrote “talk to me about anything,” while others wrote “arts and museums” or “traveling.” Mine was “ask me how to pronounce my name.”* I was hoping it would be an interesting conversation starter. The talks of the day were great. Among many, we heard from a mushroom-foraging student about understanding where our food comes from (as featured in the above photo), the editor of Fast Company about technology and digital media, and an art history professor about the mythologies of the “Artist-Genius.”  

*Kirsten is pronounced Kur-sten. It is often mistaken for Kiersten, which is pronounced Keer-stin, or Kristen, which is pronounced Krihs-ten.