YES! Getting the whole audience screaming orgastically is a sure-fire way to encourage them to tick the ‘this inspired me’ box on the form. YES, this was TedxMaastricht’s pitch night, giving seventeen people just six minutes each to showcase their interesting stories, life’s works or ambitions.
The collective shouting took place during the only true performance of the evening. Drum Café provided the rhythm and a couple of drumsticks to each person in the audience. We all, (reluctantly and poorly, at first) clacked along to the beat, culminating in a huge cathartic release so raucously loud that films being shown in other auditoriums of the Lumiere Cinema had to have an enforced intermission. I wasn’t quite certain what their point was, but certainly it was good fun.
They were not the only act to try and get people out of their seats – but unfortunately the good intentions of Joon Meleze to unite the world through singing, hit a bum note. Awkwardly hugging the stranger next to me, half-heartedly bleating the cringe worthy words of their anthem did little to have a rousing effect.
A number of the speakers had personal stories to tell. We heard from a couple of Maastricht University students unhappy with the lack of inspiration in the university system – the fear of failure looming large over their studies and their frustration clearly showed. Chancing his arm, Erik ‘Hook’ Hamers was a rock-climbing amputee with a bespoke prosthetic that allowed him to conquer mountains and adversity. Don’t give up was his message.
The best speakers were those that had a genuine idea to share – like building interactive theatre spaces through innovative architecture in the middle of town squares, or finding the cross over between all three main science disciplines.
Faten Aggad wanted to use innovative social marketing techniques to help break the glass ceiling and change society to allow more women into leadership.
However one young woman captured the imagination of everyone, winning the contest through her simple message of prevention being the best cure. Her heartwarming transformation from a teenager imprisoned in her own body, into a self-confident healthy adult received the biggest round of applause of the evening. She highlighted the growing problem of obesity, through society’s self-destructive habits meaning that we are all eating ourselves into ill health and major issues further down the line. Proper nutrition and education, she said, can prevent people becoming ill in the first place.
Clem Silverman 