TEDxLSU Creative Team

September 27, 2017

LSU Communication across the Curriculum (CxC) has championed TEDxLSU for the past three years. Students have always played an important role in the TEDxLSU event, especially when it comes to day-of implementation. This year, however, TEDxLSU expanded its student-driven involvement by implementing a creative team to work on the development and branding of the event. Students were divided into sub-groups based on their area of interest. These groups were Public Relations/Social Media, Writing, Graphic Design, Photography/Videography, Set Design/Production, Event Logistics, and Project Management. These seven teams, composed of students across various majors and backgrounds, signed on for a 6-month unpaid internship and worked alongside organizers to make this year’s theme, “Connect” reflect all aspects of the event.

Public Relations and Social Media:

The Public Relations/Social Media team was in charge of coming up with multiple campaigns creating awareness of the event on LSU campus and the Baton Rouge area. The team also worked to promote ticket sales and encourage community members to participate in the event by volunteering, sponsoring, and attending. Team members gained tangible experience by creating press releases, social media graphics, posts, and awareness pop-up activities throughout campus building up to the event.

"As students of LSU, we get theoretical knowledge on how to post things but being on TEDxLSU gives me the real life experience first hand." - Daniel Espinoza (Public Relations Team Project Manager)

Members of the Public Relations/Social Media team advertised the event to the LSU Community.

 

Writing Team:

The Writing Team created dialogue for the event by writing biographic materials for each of the speakers and working with local newspapers and magazines to create a buzz about the event. Some of the writing team members partnered up with 225 magazine to contribute information about the TEDxLSU 2015 speakers to the magazine's blog. Through the process, students expanded their writing experience beyond the creative writing or traditional academic writing they were used to, and had the opportunity to create a voice for TEDxLSU’s communications.

"This has been a wonderful experience! As a fashion/lifestyle blogger, this was an opportunity to try something different and write in a different style. With the assistant of the CxC staff, I was able to generate quality content that I can definitely take with me for the rest of my life.” - Sakeenah Ashiru (Writing Team Member)

“Being on the writing team for TEDxLSU was very challenging to say the least. It’s nothing like the poetry I’m used to writing that’s for sure.” - Brittany Marshall (Writing Team Member)

 

Graphic Design:

The Graphic Design team was in charge of creating digital signage around campus as well as T-shirts, name badges and more for the event. The team also partnered with Lamar Advertising and Visit Baton Rouge to design multiple billboards along Interstate 10 that advertised the event and contributed to the excitement and buzz leading up to the event by creating graphics on social media.

“Working with such an enthusiastic team was great. It really helped us to keep moving forward and meet our deadlines while maintaining a high standard for our delivered work.” - Kim Allen (Graphic Design Team Member)

 

Members of the Graphic Design team worked to create visual content for the event.

 

Photo/Video Team:

Before the event took place, Photo and Video Team members were kept busy creating informational videos of speakers and exhibitors and photographing all of the work that went into making the event happen. On the day of the event, team members documented the day by taking pictures and short videos.

“I loved being on the team. Video production is my passion and it felt great knowing that I could use that to support something as large and influential as TEDxLSU.” - Lindsey Potter (Photo/Video Team Member)

 

Event Logistics:

The Event Logistics Team was in charge of bringing all of the different team’s products to fruition. Much like the Set Design and Production Team, the Event Logistics Team did behind the scenes work that brought different aspects of the event together. Being a part of this team gave experience to those interested in the field of large scale event planning. From scheduling load in and load out for vendors, to coordinating registration and snacks for the volunteers, to making sure the attendees were able to enjoy live music throughout the day, the Event Logistics team brought all of it together.

“It was an incredible experience to really be behind the scenes of such a great event, and coordinate between the speakers on stage, the crew who set up the event, and the organizations participating in the activities hosted outside of the talks. It really gave me an idea of the different factors that must be dealt with to successfully put on an event like TEDxLSU.” - Catherine Briley (Event Logistics Project Manager)

 

Set Design/Production:

The Set Design and Production team had the task of incorporating the theme of “Connect” onto the stage. All involved on this team had prior knowledge thanks to backgrounds in the field, and were able to design the stage beautifully with threads that angled themselves aesthetically behind the TEDxLSU letters that sat on the stage.

“I thought the collaborative process was fun and we all worked really hard to make our concept a reality and that it looked great at the end and highlighted the overall theme well. If I could expand on the concept I would want to make a set that was more interactive and could really involve the audience.” - Laurel McGehee (Set Design/Production Team Member)

 

Members of the Set Design/Production team, designed and created the set design for the event.

 

 

Project Management:

In addition to teams made up to tackle different aspects of the event, the Project Management Team was a team made up of student project managers. Each one assigned to a different team, the project managers coordinated team communication, specifics for deliverables, and made sure that products were completed in a timely manner. They oversaw all that their team accomplished and encouraged them along the way. This allowed for students to receive extensive leadership skills while adding to the creative content for the TEDxLSU.

"Definitely getting people together who do digital things, having good relationships is really nice. The whole process has been great fun. Getting stuff done and seeing the results is pretty awesome. Communicating digitally for our meetings has also been awesome!" - Isabelle Gizinski (Project Manager/ Photo & Video)

"Being in project management has been very beneficial because as an Industrial Engineering, Project management is a huge part of our development. So, this has been a great experience." - Lindy Shea (Project Manager/ Graphic Design)

In its first year, the Creative Team was extremely successful and will be implemented again for TEDxLSU2016.