TEDxBard Organizer Emily O’Rourke ’25 Shares Her Lessons Learned from Organizing a Conference

Emily O’Rourke ’25 shared her experiences working on Bard’s TEDx organizing team in an article for Bard CCE News. TEDx events are independently organized conferences that bring together speakers to give short talks with the aim of sparking conversation and change. The 2023 conference at Bard, “Shaping the Future,” featured more than a dozen speakers who discussed how modern advancements have paved the way for human technological and artistic progress. O’Rourke joined the organizing committee in 2022 and said the conference had “a larger impact on [us organizers]—as students, changemakers, leaders, and individuals—than we ever could have imagined.”

O’Rourke writes that planning the conference was a haven from the stresses of college life. The team tried to find “humor in the terror” of planning such a large event, and “most of our sessions would end with, ‘So are we really doing this?’” The event helped all of them find a place at college and helped O’Rourke in particular to overcome personal grief by finding a community. “I got to spend time with so many people who, through their ideas and passion, inspired me to have hope for my own future,” she said.

O’Rourke is the event organizer for the 2025 TEDx Conference which will take place on February 8. Entitled “Building Bridges,” it will focus on topics from structural issues in the global coffee supply chain to building a sustainable lifestyle under mass-market capitalism.
 

Post Date: 10-23-2024