Year: 2018 | Role: Organizer & Project Manager
Event Production · Community Organizing · Creative Direction
The Why
In 2015-2016, I volunteered at TEDxChiangMai as a university student, stayed the whole day, then rushed back to my dorm to study for a pathology exam the next morning. I was studying Medical Technology. I had no plans to use the degree.
By 2018, I had graduated and made a deliberate choice: not hospitals, not clinics. I wanted to find out what I could do on the creative side. Martin Venzky-Stalling, who had watched me work as a volunteer, called and asked if I wanted to run the whole event.
I was 22.
What I Did
I built the team from scratch, often recruiting people I saw potential in before they saw it in themselves. Many of them I half-persuaded, half-tricked into joining. The team ended up spanning ages 18 to over 70, multiple nationalities, and backgrounds that had no business being in the same room together. They were.
I managed the full production: 20 speakers, 3 performers, side events, workshops, spin-off events, senior government and corporate sponsors, an international hotel venue, and over 1,000 attendees. I held the communication lines between every layer: the core team, the volunteers, the sponsors, the speakers, the venue, making sure the people working alongside me felt seen and supported, not just assigned tasks.
Outcomes
Martin later wrote in a recommendation letter: “She impressively took the lead and managed a small core group of project office staff and a large group of volunteers to deliver one of our best events over the past ten years.” He noted I bridged a team spanning under-18 to over-70, across cultures and nationalities, without losing either the detail or the warmth. He added that despite having almost 30 years more experience, he still seeks my opinion, because I always have an interesting perspective.
My own measure of success was simpler: I just wanted everyone to have an amazing experience here. To do things they had never done. To meet new people. To the idea worth spreading.
By that standard, it worked.
- More about TEDxChiangMai 2018
- https://www.ted.com/tedx/events/24878
- TEDxChiangMai 2018 Official Playlist