UTM students succeed in spreading TEDx spirit despite the COVID-19 outbreak

The TEDxUTM2021 powered by UTM Centre for Student Innovation and Technology Entrepreneurship (UTM XCITE) was recently held online at the Hopin platform on 10th of April 2021 (Saturday). TEDxUTM is an annual event of UTM since 2017 and in this fifth year running, TEDxUTM2021 with its theme, ‘Re!magine Limits’, invites people from parallel paths of life to reconnect, to mutually inspire and break free from the confined walls, as limitations only exist in one’s minds.

Re!magine. ‘Re’ challenges people to redefine their capabilities whereas ‘!magine’ dares people to dream big and believe in turning the inconceivable to the achievable. Preview of life’s coming attractions are through the power of imagination and hence spark the beginning for creation. By believing that nothing is unchangeable or certain, the team endeavour to go beyond the existing conventional mind frame, ‘Re!magine’ a future for people that dare to dream their own paths and explore the world with new perspectives without self-imposed limitations.

Extending their intention in bring in ‘ideas worth spreading’ to the community, TEDxUTM2021 invited a total of nine speakers from diverse backgrounds including UX Researcher, Nicolette Wei Mei Wong; co-founder of Authority Institute, Maverick Foo; Transformational Trainer and Visionary of YANA, Hugo Tan; writer, poet and storyteller, Arisha Akhir; leadership coach, Marcus Loh; pharmacist and founder of MadeByAnjoe, Anjoe Koh; architecture futurist, Sarly Adre Sarkum; quantum distinguished ambassador and technologist, Jing Yi Chan; and lastly, Asia’s first female MiG-29N fighter pilot, military pilot and flight instructor, Lt Col Patricia Yapp RMAF.

Although it was the first time for the team to host the event online with over 100 participants, the team had successfully managed to collaborate with a few partners in networking sessions such as, Folk It De Artland for acrylic painting workshop, Sun and Moon Pottery Studio for pottery workshop, and Ryan Chung Han for yo-yo performance. UTM performers were also invited in entertaining sessions such as Losting Music Club, Ryan_K and Freedom Dance Crew (FDC). Besides, the committee had also set up sessions with different themes to interact and share ideas with the participants.

According to the director of TEDxUTM2021, Fu Shin Jie, the board of committee consists of 38 UTM students from various schools. The team has spent around six months preparing the event from scratch.

“In light of the COVID-19 outbreak in Malaysia, it was a blessed misfortune for this term event to be hosted online. We lost the opportunity to grant our participants with physical TEDx experience like always, however, our team embraces this new norm by bringing the same inspiring dose of talks online with over 400 registrations. Moving forward, we certainly hope to return with physical events in continuation of sparking the lights of ideas sharing in UTM.” said Fu Shin Jie.

Sessions Overview

Expo Overview

This content is provided by TEDxUTM.

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