TEDxUQ is an annual conference hosted at UQ, designed to showcase social and technical innovations in and around the university. An event of this scale and prestige would normally be run by the university, however this is 100% student organised. From sourcing sponsorship and coordinating marketing to training speakers and organising catering, everything was done by a dedicated team of students who were also thinking about their assignments, exams, and part-time jobs. Being part of this team for the months leading up to this event was one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve had, and certainly the highlight of my semester.
TL;DR
If a photo speaks a thousand words, a video speaks ~25 000 per second (depending on the region it was recorded in). With that in mind, here’s a summary of the event day:
My role was primarily in marketing, where I focussed on photos and videos for online campaigns. Our most successful campaign was a photo competition during O-Week, where we took photos of students holding a portable blackboard, which they could then tag themselves in on Facebook and go in the draw to win a ticket to the event. After they liked our page, of course. And due to the social nature of Facebook, once one person is tagged in your photo hundreds of their friends will also see that photo, massively raising the awareness of the event in the student body. We got over 500 fresh, organic likes that week. It was great.
3D Printing
One of the marketing initiatives that I pushed was using 3D printing to brand locations and events. It worked brilliantly, and we found many uses for the little logo. Plus, as an engineer it was fun to make. Designed in Photoshop using the 3D module and the STL export function.
Video Promotions
Leading up to the event I made many videos for our Facebook page. We hosted a “Speakers’ Corner” where students could come and briefly share their ideas about rewriting the rules (our 2015 theme). This was great as the students liked and shared their videos, leading to more engagement on the Facebook page. Plus, letting students share their ideas fits in with the core TED message. Video-wise, I used a two DSLRs: a 60D and a 600D. I also used my new lapel mic for the first time, recording into my iPhone in the talent’s back pocket through a TRS to TRRS adapter. The audio was absolutely perfect, I couldn’t be happier with the setup. Well, the Rode app leaves a lot to be desired in terms of useability, but the quality is great.
The next promotion was an interview with JACS Radio. This is an online station run by journalism students, and I went along and filmed it for our Facebook page. The video got a few shares, including the JACS Radio Facebook page, so provided great opportunities for cross-promotion.
The last big lead-up video we did was a set of interviews with some of the speakers where they spoke about themselves and previewed what they would be talking about on the day. We filmed this during breaks on rehearsal day so there wasn’t much time for set-up. This video went well, with a couple of shares and over a thousand views on the night we posted it. On the technical side, it was the first time I had tried to use a channel splitter to record two feeds into a DSLR. I had a lapel with a long extension to the camera and an on-camera Rode shotgun. It went ok, the one problem being there is only one gain setting for both channels. However, the Rode offers some gain control on the mic itself (+10dB, 0, and -10dB if I remember correctly) which meant I could get the signals close enough to be useful.
Tickets
First of all, tickets to the event are free. So what was the point of giving away tickets during O-Week? As a licensee of the TED brand, we were only allowed to have 100 guests at our event. This may seem extremely limiting, and it was. For one, the GHD Auditorium where we held the event (the nicest lecture theatre at UQ) holds over 400 people, so at full capacity we don’t even have the room half full. This creates an empty look. More importantly, it limits the experience to only a hundred people. At a university with thousands of students this isn’t fun.
To get around the limitation, we livestreamed the whole event. We set up another function room with beanbags, popcorn and drinks and let anyone come in and watch the livestream on the projector. This worked pretty well, I’ll talk about it later.
The Livestream
We were lucky enough to partner with UQx for the livestream of the event. They livestream educational workshops and seminars and thus have a lot of experience in this area. They also have great kit; a custom-built box with some Blackmagic switchers, monitors and recorders. The output goes into a Teradek Vidiu which lets us stream directly to YouTube without a computer.
The cameras used for the recording/livestream were some kind of Panasonics. They had manual zoom/focus lenses on them which would have been a pain for the operators, but they’re pretty talented so the footage looked fine. One wide shot, one tight shot. Standard.
The feed was livestreamed to the ‘Greenroom’, a function room at UQ we loaded up with beanbags, popcorn machines and “slushies”. The event on Facebook had over 800 people attending which had us a little concerned (the room had a capacity of 100) but luckily not everyone came and we had the room just nicely filled. The room had a nice relaxed vibe, and the speakers walked over and chatted to attendees after their talks which added value.
The livestream held up for most of the day, with one small outage in the middle. You see, TED guidelines mandate that at least 25% of the day is dedicated to showing videos of TED talks, and when the TED talks were livestreamed we got a copyright notice and our stream was taken down. Other than that the feed went smoothly, which was a solid effort by all involved. Livestreams are hard.
That just about wraps up my involvement in the event. There was a hell of a lot more going on, but this was my contribution. It was a truly remarkable team and I can’t thank them enough for this opportunity. I think everyone at the event appreciated the effort too, as it was a fun day of sharing ideas, networking, thinking outside the box and being inspired.
