Planning a TEDx event brings a mixture of personalities together each with varying emotions on any given day about how everything is coming together. An additional layer of complexity comes in to play with balancing every aspect of a growing community that is always hungry for more interaction and keeping all the coordination of the actual event in check … it sounded so easy at first.
So how does all this get done? Volunteers! People throughout Albuquerque giving of their time and resources for no other reason than their love for TED and wanting to bring ideas worth sharing to a local stage. We have volunteers helping keep this website up to date, organizing every detail of the venue, putting together grab bags, organizing meetups, selecting speakers, keeping our Facebook and twitter accounts active (and interactive) and so much more I can’t even write it all out. But it doesn’t happen without them!
This year was suppose to be easier, because we learned so much last year, and it some ways it has been. Well, until we decided to make the event twice as big as last year! We don’t regret that decision but it has brought on a new set of challenges that has caused our manpower to be strained at times. An amazing venue was priority number one this (along with lowering the ticket price), seats have to be comfortable and a stage that allows us to increase the attendee experience and to top it all off is designing an interactive experience from the time you walk in the door to the time you leave for the after party.
Spreading the word … we started the year off with monthly meetups and a fantastic TED simulcast back in March, we are doing everything in our power to secure a location for the TED Global simulcast in July of 2011 as well. Facebook (TEDxABQ) and Twitter (@TEDxABQ) has become our lifeline of getting information out fast to our community, boy is it fun to see the feedback of excitement!
July and August will each have a working meetup scheduled for late each month, we need as many hands as possible to help assemble some of the magic that will make this year even more amazing than last year. www.meetup.com/tedxnm
Wanting to volunteer? There are still some volunteer positions available for 2011, if you would like to see if you have the skill-set and time requirements available please send us an email with your contact information and skills you’d like to use and we will let you know what is available. You can use our online form to send a quick email http://tedxabq.com/volunteer/
Tickets … the big question is how to get a ticket and how much? This year the tickets will go on sale July 15th at the stroke of midnight, and each ticket is $45. Last year sold out and this year is expected to sell out even faster, so if you want a seat I suggest you set your alarm and be prepared 
