TEDxNTUA 2020 & 2021

TEDxNTUA is a conference that features talks on the topics of popular science, art, and social issues, stories that can inspire, as well as intriguing workshops and performances. It runs under the auspices of the National Technical University of Athens, Greece (NTUA) and is primarily aimed at the university community, but also at the wider student and local communities of Athens. A team of 20+ university students gather each year after a rigorous selection process and get split into 7 teams based on their individual skills. The task is simple. Organize an event that combines character with spectacle. The output of the team spans across multimedia production, blogging, podcasting and more… For the individual, as a university student, one improves their soft skills, learning how to collaborate across a team that resembles a small company, as well as their hard skills when it comes to visuals, coding, production etc.

During the 2021 year, I was the co-curator of the team. That means that I was in charge of the 7 sub-teams in order to have an overview of their progress and work as a link and representative among them. That year was maybe the most challenging because of the covid restrictions, prohibiting us from organizing the event with the standardized format. We managed to exceed all expectations and organize 3 events that year. A vidcast production with professionals talking about a relevant topic in their field, production of the talks in a theater and an open-air cinema to screen the talks and discuss around them.

I was part of the IT team for both years 2020, 2021 progressively gaining more experience and responsibilities. In 2021 I was in charge of the whole IT team responsible for building the website for the event. We used django as a web framework, building the website as a full-stack web application. We paid extreme attention to detail, by making the visual components using custom css. We also deployed a website for the upcoming blog, and maintained everything using cpanel for managing the databases, the email server, the domain, hosting etc. One challenge was during the day of the event, where we had to implement new visual components for sponsors who requested to have exclusive components on the website on the day of the event. Additionally, one of the key aspects was the close collaboration with the graphics team, with which I could work as a link between the tech and creative team, thanks to my background in photography and knowledge of graphics tools.

Below you can see indicative work from the 2021 event ** 2021 Website is currently down :( But you can have a look here : tedx-ntua.com