This year’s TEDxQueensU conference aimed to “illuminate” voices often left in the shadows.
The 15th annual TEDx conference, hosted by Queen’s University, graced the Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts between Jan. 18 and 19, from 5 to 8 p.m on both evenings. The event drew over 250 attendees, including students and of the community. TEDxQueensU, incepted in 2009, features speakers including Queen’s alumni and professionals from various fields.
Co-directors Simarjeet Singh, ArtSci ’26, and Chloe Kim, HealthSci ’25, dedicated over 10 months to organizing the TEDx Queen’s University conference. They curated the speaker lineup, developed the theme “Illuminate,” and secured event licensing. The conference featured nine talks covering topics like career success after graduation, journeys of self-discovery, and building meaningful connections.
“We’re naturally drawn to what we can see, touch, and hear—the obvious, the tangible. It’s how we make sense of the world,” Kim said in her opening speech alongside Singh. “Yet, for everything visible, there’s more that lies in the shadows, hidden stories, untold truths and connections waiting to be discovered.”
Kim explained in an interview with The Journal that the selection of the theme was a collaborative process among the entire TEDx team. The team discussed and consolidated their values to create a theme, which was then put to a vote.
The conference combined traditional talks with performance pieces, including an opening ceremony led by Anishinaabe artist Rob Spade. Spade lit sage and offered a prayer, explaining sage symbolizes purification in Indigenous culture. The act of burning the sage was a prayer for the purification of the event.
One of the lineup of speakers for the night, Mike Kelly, ArtSci ’20, owner of the company We Mean Fitness, shared in an interview with The Journal he was drawn to the TEDxQueensU conference because of the innovative ideas it fosters and the opportunity to share his knowledge on personal training and exercise with a large audience.
“I like helping people because it makes me feel good. So, I thought, how can I extend any reach I have? Let’s do a TEDx talk, and that’s it,” Kelly said. “I hope there’s at least one person that gets a wake-up call that, oh my God, ‘I didn’t realize that I need to start making some changes.’”
Audience member Leah Fedder, ArtSci ’25, emphasized the importance of attending conferences like TEDx, noting it provides a fun opportunity to engage with topics one might not typically explore and to learn something new.
Adam Say, ArtSci ’08, lead advisor for TEDxQueensU who manages the licensing of the event and advises the directors, highlighted the entire team’s effort in creating this conference.
“Getting to see the results of [the teams] efforts and getting to see what would be 10 to 12 months of work and every email they’ve sent and thousands of meetings […] pay off in two nights of a full arena and people getting to see that, it’s amazing,” Say said in an interview with The Journal.
The event offered an Indigenous Art Gallery during the breaks where attendees could purchase traditional art such as earrings, paintings, and skincare.
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