TEDxNortheasternU hosts talks, workshops and events to share bold ideas, spark conversations and connect the Northeastern community.
Allison Evin and Olivia Watson wanted to join TEDxNortheasternU even before they arrived at Northeastern University’s Boston campus as first-year students.
Evin, now a third-year civil engineering major, loved TED Talks so much that she organized a similar event in her high school, bringing students and teachers together.
Watson, a third-year media arts and communication studies major, discovered TEDxNortheasternU through a quick Google search about student organizations at Northeastern. She even mentioned her desire to join in her application to the university.
“A lot of my teachers [in high school] really loved showing us TED Talks,” Watson says. “So I was really enamored by that at Northeastern I could be part of the organization to actually make it come to life.”
Evin and Watson serve as co-presidents of TEDxNortheasternU, which is bringing its annual flagship conference to the Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Complex on Saturday, Feb. 22.
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TEDxNortheasternU is a student-run organization, officially licensed by TED — the nonprofit renowned for its global conferences on technology, entertainment and design — to host TEDx events on the Boston campus.
Since 1984, TED has showcased ideas and research from thinkers and industry leaders around the world with the goal of inspiring conversations and promoting learning and change.
Following TED’s mission statement that “ideas change everything,” TEDxNortheasternU seeks to bring the Northeastern community together, inspire discussions and encourage collaboration among its members.
“These events are all about bringing a community together, providing a platform and sharing these ideas, but also discussing them and seeing where these ideas can take us,” Evin says.
Beyond its annual conference, TEDxNortheasternU has previously organized salon events featuring up to four speakers, as well as speaker workshops where students learn to transform rough ideas into polished talks. The group also collaborates with other campus organizations on Tech Talks and is partnering with the College of Science in March for an event designed for first-year students exploring the pre-med track.
This year’s TEDxNortheasternU conference will feature six speakers chosen from nearly 100 applicants, and they will present their innovative ideas under the unifying theme “Uncharted: Seek the Uncertain.”
“We’re living in this ever-evolving world, where there are new technologies, new changes,” Evin says. “And it’s all about adapting and being open to learning, and seeking to expand the boundaries.”
“This is definitely an opportunity for people who will attend the event to explore what they know and not know and learn more,” Watson says.
The event will also feature xLabs, a collection of interactive exhibits where attendees can engage with presenting organizations through workshops, crafts and hands-on demonstrations.
Northeastern’s undergraduate Indian classical dance team, Malhar, and a Latin dance team, Kaliente, will perform between talks.
TEDxNortheasternU now has over 50 dedicated members, Watson says, working across seven teams, including operations, tech, marketing and finance.
“One of the things I honestly love most about this organization is that it does really connect a wide variety of people through just the passion for TED,” Evin says.
Members come from different majors, backgrounds and interests.
For example, when Watson joined the organization, she was assigned to the marketing team.
“It was really cool to get hands-on experience working with people who had different majors,” she says.
Even though she will not be a speaker, Watson says, she finds fulfillment in working behind the scenes to bring a TEDx conference to life.
“I remember one of the feedbacks that we got from some of the attendees was how professional the event was,” she says.
Evin started on the operations team, becoming its director last year. Her team handled such tasks as logistics of the events, procurement, scheduling and catering.
“You really do learn a lot about people,” Evin says. “One of the things I’ve learned most about in the co-president role is how to work with lots of different people and lots of different ideas.”
Anyone affiliated with Northeastern can apply to speak at the annual TEDxNortheasternU conference.
“We do like to have a professor or a faculty member, or an alumni,” Elvin says, “but the majority of our speakers yearly are students that don’t have any prior experience.”
The application period for the 2026 conference will open at the end of March, she says, with speakers selected over the summer after an interview.
The organization looks for passionate candidates with unique ideas that draw from their personal or academic experiences.
The speaker development team will coach selected speakers through every step — from refining their ideas and drafting scripts to polishing their public speaking skills and creating a visual presentation.
“Not everybody gets an opportunity to step up on a TED stage and [the fact] that this is so accessible, I think, is so amazing,” Watson says.