“We’ve had an incredible 10-year run of success, and it all culminated in a special TEDxDayton celebration in 2022 for everyone,” said Sean Creighton, a co-license holder for TEDxDayton. “Upon reflection of our 10 years, we decided to pivot the energy and resources to TEDxYouth Dayton going forward, knowing our future is in the hands of the younger generation, and the youth initiative is a vital platform for young voices across our community.”
TED is a national nonprofit organization founded in 1984 and “devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading, often in the form of short talks delivered by leading thinkers and doers,” according to the TEDxDayton website. Those talks, known as TED Talks, are a “showcase for speakers presenting great, well-formed ideas in under 18 minutes,” according to TED.
The next TEDxYouth@Dayton event will be held at the Dayton Art Institute’s Rose Auditorium on March 7. It will feature the theme “Nine Lives” and will include youth speakers who will spend hundreds of hours preparing TED Talks.
Creighton said this year’s TEDxYouth@Dayton event won’t see a dramatic change, having already been “well in the works” for many months.
“In 2025, we’ll see what impact that might have by focusing entirely on the youth event,” he said. “The changes might be just reaching a broader audience throughout the community, and growing community participation, attendance and support.”
TEDxDayton signature events, youth events and salons have attracted 14,000 in-person attendees, and TEDxDayton’s Ted Talks have reached people worldwide, garnering more than 11 million views, officials said.
TEDxYouth@Dayton focuses on “sharing the stories, ideas and wisdom” of youth from the Southwestern Ohio area from age 14 up to early 20s, according to Bryan Lakatos, who is co-chair of the group.
Over the last nine years, TEDxYouth@Dayton events have grown in attendance and popularity as a forum to highlight the talent, creativity and passion of those youth, officials said.
After celebrating the 10-year anniversary of TEDxDayton in 2022, officials had some “hard conversations” about where to focus the energy for volunteer hours and financial resources, then decided to not hold an October 2023 event before eventually indefinitely suspending it as a program altogether, Creighton said.
But as it regrouped, TEDxDayton also discussed the importance of the younger generation, he said.
“Our future is in their hands and ... we wanted to really focus our resources into that event and make it more prominent throughout the community,” Creighton said.
Lakatos said the TEDxYouth@Dayton Committee is “super appreciative” of everything that the TEDxDayton Signature Committee has done for the last decade for Dayton, and especially for the last nine years for TEDxYouth@Dayton events.
“They continue to be good partners and supportive of our events and obviously now with a focus on youth and putting all the energy and resources and connections and such into that is something that I’m passionate about and very grateful for,” he said. “They are setting us up really nicely for exciting things.”
Cassie Barlow, president of the Strategic Ohio Council for Higher Education, or SOCHE, said the TED organization has been “a real supporter” of the community for many years and has been very successful in addressing its needs.
“I think in our society, in general, we’ve seen a pretty big shift, rolling out of COVID, to the needs of young people,” Barlow said. “I think the timing couldn’t be better for this shift coming for TEDx ... to really support the youth of our community and their needs ... and a great refocus, intentionally targeted on what the biggest needs are in our community.”
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