Improv just one talk at upcoming TEDxUNC
This year, speakers will focus on the theme of “Assembly Required,” which aims to empower the community to consider the tools available to them to create something meaningful. The theme was inspired by the idea of being innovative by using the basics.
Jonathan Hebert has been honing and crafting his improv abilities through classes and performances since high school.
While the skills serve the UNC-Chapel Hill senior economics major well on stage, they have also helped Hebert become a better leader and create new ideas in his daily life.
On Feb. 7, Hebert will share his experiences with improvisation as one of 13 speakers at the TEDxUNC conference at Memorial Hall. Nearly 1,000 people are expected to attend the conference. This year’s theme: “Assembly Required.”
“I’m excited to talk about it [improv] in a way that zooms it out from performance and applies it to everyday life for people who don’t do creative pursuits but can still benefit from the tools and method of thinking,” Hebert said.
The annual conference — in its fourth year at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill — will feature 15-minute presentations by speakers and performers from around the world.
Tickets sold-out in less than 40 minutes, but the TEDxUNC website will provide a livestream of the conference.
“TEDxUNC is a unique experience intended to address some of humanity’s fundamental concerns by bringing together world renowned speakers to share their ‘Idea Worth Spreading’ to an audience of innovative minds,” said Michael McNeill, the event’s co-curator. “TEDxUNC gives a platform to speakers and attendees to seek answers to some of humanity’s fundamental concerns that we all share.”
This year, speakers will focus on the theme of “Assembly Required,” which aims to empower the community to consider the tools available to them to create something meaningful. The theme was inspired by the idea of being innovative by using the basics.
“The speakers are very diverse,” said Shannon Coy, a TEDxUNC co-curator. “We have everyone coming in from someone who worked with Nelson Mandela in South Africa to a sociologist coming from New York talking about race and class issues.”
Although presenters will come from all over the world, the TEDxUNC organizers wanted UNC-Chapel Hill to be represented on the stage. So they held an open competition for Carolina students to earn a spot on the bill.
Students first posted a one-minute video of their talks on Facebook, and the top eight were invited to give a short in-person sample of their presentations.
Hebert came out on top.
A member of the Chapel Hill’s Players improv group, Hebert said he plans discuss the idea of setting aside 20 minutes a day for structured improv to help create ideas.
“You should be practicing improv in your own role — improvise and create within your own field,” Hebert said. “If you’d do that, you will innovate better ideas in your space.”
Hebert will represent UNC-Chapel Hill along with Todd Zakrajsek, an associate professor in the Department of Family Medicine, and Kathleen Gallagher, a scientist at Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute. Their talks will include memory techniques and raising healthy children.
Other talk subjects will include overcoming mental illness, using resources to make a difference and building a company.
“At the end of the day, I want people to leave TEDxUNC with a bunch of seeds in their hands, letting them choose which ones they want to plant and tend to,” McNeill said. “The simple act of setting those seeds in motion help to shape and mold people’s lives.”
For more information on TEDxUNC and the livestream on Feb. 7, click here.
