Zephyr Teachout took the stage in the Osterhout Concert Theater to address a crowd of students and faculty eager to hear new ideas. But she wasn’t kick-starting a new political campaign; TEDxBinghamtonUniversity 2015 was underway.
The fifth-annual event featured seven speakers from around the world, from Dubai to Amsterdam and New York City to Binghamton. Intermission entertainment was provided by the Latin dance troupe Quimbamba.
The theme of the event was “Walk the Talk;” all of the speakers have done some sort of work to back up the ideas that they were presenting to the packed house.
Audience members saw Adam Eskin, founder of the Dig Inn Seasonal Market; Sunny Hostin, a BU alumna and journalist at CNN; Zephyr Teachout, a former New York gubernatorial candidate; Christopher Fix, a BU alumnus and CEO of the Dubai Mercantile Exchange; Jack Fischer, a sophomore and winner of the contest to be the TEDx student speaker; Maria Santelli, executive director of the Center on Conscience & War; and Lisa Lottie, a world-renowned hula-hoop artist.
According to co-director Stephen Prosperi, one of the most difficult parts of putting on the event was getting the speakers to Binghamton from all over the world — Fix lives in Dubai and Lottie is from the Netherlands.
“Any time you’re dealing with that many variables, it’s easy for things to tank quickly,” said Prosperi, a senior in the individualized major program studying finance and marketing of new media. “But we were lucky they all arrived on time and safe, and in my opinion all gave pretty awesome talks, definitely diverse.”
Topics varied greatly, with Eskin discussing the changes in the restaurant food landscape in the United States and Santelli describing her experiences with conscientious objection in the American military.
One of the afternoon’s biggest draws was Fischer, who was chosen to be the event’s first-ever student speaker. In his talk, he discussed the potential perils of internet pornography, and spoke about an internet community — NoFap — dedicated to helping users quit the habit.
Prosperi said that seeing Fischer on the stage was a satisfying experience.
“We got to see the entire evolution of his talk, and I was just really impressed by the final product,” he said.
Stephanie Izquieta, also a co-director, said she was excited by the positive response to Fischer’s speech.
“As much as it was a first-time experience for Jack, it was also the first time we hosted an undergraduate student speaker,” said Izquieta, a senior majoring in philosophy, politics and law. “It was a risk we took, but it totally paid off.”
Lottie, the final speaker of the night, took the crowd by surprise when the theater lights were dimmed and she emerged holding LED-lit hula-hoops. Her acrobatic performance was followed by a talk explaining her nontraditional career path.
Lakhan Kumar, a junior double-majoring in psychology and economics, said that Lottie’s was his favorite talk of the night.
“I give all the props to Lisa for dropping out of school and chasing her dreams,” he said. “It must have been really tough to do that, and I give her the utmost respect for that.”
However, not everyone got the most out of the talks.
“Truth be told, as a director, I don’t really get to see the show,” Izquieta said. “I was running around backstage making sure nothing goes wrong. I managed to catch the beginning of Lisa Lottie’s talk and I really enjoyed the bit I saw. I’ll just have to watch them online.”