By Madeleine Powell
Staff Writer
The city of Manhattan Beach, the Manhattan Beach Unified School District and the Manhattan Beach Education Foundation held the seventh-annual TEDxManhattanBeach conference on Nov. 5 at Mira Costa.
This year’s TEDxMB consisted of speakers as well as an exposition hall on the theme “What If?” A total of 700 people attended the event.
Photos: Mira Costa holds the 2016 TEDxManhattanBeach Conference.
“[The conference] was a big success in terms of attracting diverse, multi-generational audience members,” event curator and community member Kate Bergin said.
Speakers performed 10 to 18-minute speeches in the Costa auditorium. Each speaker shared an idea that was important to him or her and related it to the theme, Bergin said. Examples of ideas were mental health and music performance.
For the exposition hall, volunteers set up tables throughout the cafeteria where different groups and organizations displayed experiments and projects relevant to the discussed topics.
“This year we [had] a lot of technology in the exhibit hall, and that aligns with all the new classes that are at Costa,” Bergin said.
TEDxMB also allows attendees to participate in a community art project. This year, the project was a mural made of buttons sewn onto an image of the MB pier. TEDxMB will donate the project to the city of Manhattan Beach.
“I enjoyed not only facilitating but also participating in the project,” freshman volunteer Bridget Hawkins said.
Students from both Manhattan Beach Middle School and Costa showcased their artwork in the exposition hall. The conference also featured performances from students in Costa’s bands and orchestras.
“The whole idea of TEDx is not to have it be TED,” Costa Principal Dr. Ben Dale said. “You need to do things a little bit differently. TEDxMB’s slant is to get kids involved, and I think it’s very smart.”
Visit the TED website for a collection of TED talks compiled from conferences around the world.
According to Bergin, MBUSD wanted to host TEDxMB at Costa in past years but was unable to do so due to construction throughout the campus. The conference previously took place at MBMS; however, hosting this year’s conference at Costa provided more space and, therefore, allowed more people to attend the event, Bergin said.
“[TEDxMB] opens your eyes and your mind,” Bergin said. “Openness is what you need in every community and the more your have, the more peaceful and successful we will be.”
Leave a Reply