Talking Texas Tech

texas tech university recently got an opportunity to showcase some of its best and brightest last february when a tedx event took place on campus.

A TEDx event is part of a national movement of independently organized conferences, and this was the first such event to take place on Texas Tech’s campus. The conferences, also known as TED Talks, feature short talks or speeches over different topics. “TED” stands for technology, entertainment and design.

The TEDxTexasTechUniversity event took place Saturday, Feb. 8, in the Lanier Auditorium of the Texas Tech University School of Law.

Kelli Frias, assistant professor of marketing, was involved with the planning and marketing of the event. Frias completed the application for the event and has wanted to bring a TEDx event to Texas Tech for some time.

“Our goal was to showcase some of the ideas and innovations that are happening around West Texas,” Frias said. “We have a lot of talent from students, faculty and the community. So, we wanted to bring these groups together on campus and show them some of the great things we have happening.”

Speakers at the event ranged from professors to even one high school student. Robyn Adams, a sophomore journalism major from Houston, Texas, was one of the Texas Tech undergraduate students who spoke at the event. Adams is a poet who has performed across the nation, including at the Apollo Theater in New York City.

“I have always had a passion for writing,” Adams said. “Poetry gave me the opportunity to express myself and to express myself without restrictions. I do ‘spoken word’ poetry that is more of performance poetry. I have always loved to perform so this gives me the best of both worlds.”

Adams chose to perform a poem titled “Numbers” during her talk “The Sky is Purple.” “Numbers” focused on the similarities and differences between college student Adams and her cousin, who is currently in prison. Adams said one of the similarities between her and her cousin is the fact that both are now defined by a set of identification numbers.

Jerod Foster, College of Media & Communication assistant professor of practice, featured some of his photography work at the event, at a reception Friday night at the Rawls College of Business, and in the atrium of the law school on Saturday during the event. Foster said he felt honored to be a part of such an event.

“I think TED in general is a really good thing,” Foster said. “I think this was a great opportunity for Tech. They did a great job of marketing the event and the tickets were even sold out.”

Frias agreed that the event was a good opportunity for Texas Tech to get some national attention. One of the main goals of the event was to get at least one talk featured on the TEDx main site.

“I think this event was a good opportunity to showcase what is going on in this part of the country,” Frias said. “Most of our speakers had some sort of West Texas element in their talk which made our event special and unique.”

Poetry gave me the opportunity to express myself and to express myself without restrictions.
- Robyn Adams

Since the event was sold out, the CoMC took to social media in order to involve students who did not get a chance to attend. Kristin Wyllys (BA Public Relations, 2013, and MA Mass Communication, 2014) works as the social media lab manager for the Outpost Social Media Lab. She was in charge of analyzing social media reactions during the event.

“We had people live tweeting during the event,” Wyllys said. “We also used HootSuite to monitor audience reaction and how much growth there was from the week of the event to the day after the event.”

Wyllys said the volunteer live tweeters were helpful to engage those not at the event. She said media content from the event also was posted as part of the college’s strategy to engage people at home.

“Our live tweeters engaged people who were at the event and those who were not,” Wyllys said. “We also posted photos and short videos for those following along at home.”

Dylan Echols (BA Public Relations, 2014) works as director of RaiderComm, a student-run public relations firm at CoMC. TedxTexasTechUniversity was one of RaiderComm’s clients and Echols was account manager of the account.

“I had been involved with the account since I came on in November 2013,” Echols said. “I attended weekly meetings during the planning process and tried to increase awareness for the event. I also analyzed social media use during the event.”

The event featured talks covering topics from dating to tornado safety. Echols said the event was a new experience and a great opportunity to share ideas. CoMC’s new Google Glass was even used in an effort to bring the event online.

“I was really excited for some of the things that went on at the event,” Echols said. “There was a talk over 3-D printing which was interesting. I was also wearing Google Glass at the event to let people at home feel like they are actually at the event.”

Adams involved the audience at one point during her talk by asking, “What color is the sky?” Adams said she did this to allow the audience to have the opportunity to apply the talk to their own lives. Adams also did this to prove that people can still use some creativity in their lives when the majority of the audience might have answered that the sky was blue.

“I remember working with elementary school children once and one of the children wrote that the sky was green. I told him the sky was blue and later realized I had stifled his creativity. I just want everyone to realize it is all right to be creative. Maybe one day, we will look up and see that the sky is actually purple,” Adams said.

(Preston Redden graduated in 2015 with a Master of Arts degree in Mass Communications and in 2012 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism. David Vaughn graduated in 2014 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in University Studies.)