Eighteen minutes to share an idea, a journey, a vision. This is the format of the TEDx conference. Organised all over the world, they have now arrived at NEOMA. The very first TEDx NEOMA BS was held on October 22nd. A look back on the initiative started by the Déclic Entreprendre association.

The NEOMA students were on tenterhooks right up until the last minute : would the TEDx NEOMA BS conference go ahead? The original event was planned for April and put off until October due to the lockdown. Then in mid-October, the curfew was announced making it impossible for the event to be held at 7pm. “We really wanted it to go ahead,” says Chaïmaâ Benallal Akhdar,  vice president of the Déclic Entreprendre association behind the project. We spoke to the Head of NEOMA’s Rouen campus, the speakers and the service providers to see if the time could be brought forward by a few hours to 4 pm. And of course, respecting the strict health and safety measures.

Being unafraid to try in your personal and professional life

The very first TEDx NEOMA edition was therefore held on the Rouen campus in front of a authorized capacity audience of 100 people. The speakers, Thomas Delaunay, Khadija Salomon, Antoine Lorès, Laurence Kaltenegger-Robin and Axel Alletru, took it in turns to explain their idea of ‘Getting Started’. “We chose a rather broad theme,” says the vice-president of Déclic Entreprendre. “For us, “Getting Started” means allowing free reign to your imagination, pushing back boundaries and going beyond your limits.” So, Khadija Salomon talked about her journey as a young Moroccan woman who leaves her country, goes back to school, opens a restaurant called Le Falaf and who now employs refugees. Athlete Axel Alletru shared his story as a motocross rider who becomes paraplegic following a crash and yet continues to climb despite the odds stacked against him. “It’s a question of climbing mountains and being unafraid to start out, despite your young age,” the student says. We heard about the shortcuts in life that help simplify things on a daily basis and the reasons why we don’t take them. We learned what it means to get started, from both a personal and professional point of view. The pilot episode, as the association members refer to it, proved to be a great success.

TEDx 2021 in Rouen? Food for thought

Today, TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) conferences have established a solid reputation. Ted Talks gained true international recognition in 2006, although the “Ideas worth Spreading” have been broadcast in North America for 25 years . When the Talks went online for the first time, they were a huge success, with over one million views. Today, the YouTube channel has more than 28 million subscribers. TEDx was created by the Foundation with the aim of making the concept available all over the world. So, alongside TEDx Paris, TEDxGeneva, TEDx Rennes, … why not TEDxNEOMA? The School’s students have been thinking about this for some time, but the preparation time required is long. “It takes about three months to obtain a TEDx licence, whilst you exchange with TED,” recalls Chaïmaâ Benallal Akhdar. TED, in fact, needs to ensure that their vision and values are shared by the team: the event has a global reach, so it must  be consistent with their image. Now that the Rouen team has some experience, they are already thinking about a 2021 episode.