Your Baby Boomer parents who got into Bob Dylan and railed against the Vietnam War heard it. Your kind of cool aunt and uncle that tried to get you into Elvis Costello and still like to talk about ‘the eighties’ a lot heard it. Your older sibling who is technically Gen-Y but keeps grouping you in together by describing the two of you as ‘us Millennials’ is so infatuated with their own life and the twelve different careers they’ll have by the time they’re 40 that they don’t even know people have said it. And you have definitely heard it. Or you saw that someone tweeted it.
Youth is wasted on the young.
An old piece of so called wisdom that dictates that the vitality and energy of youth is best left in the hands of those who no longer have it.
Well, unless Steve Jobs is frozen somewhere and returns to us to conceive a pocket sized, downloadable source of eternal youth and time travel – which would of course have a limited warranty and need to be updated sixteen times a fortnight but look amazing in rose gold– that isn’t happening any time soon.
TEDxYouth@Sydney is a place, an event, and a collection of people that aims to show that youth is far from wasted on the young. Rather, this year at TEDxYouth@Sydney, that energy and exuberance that is such a hallmark of the young’uns among us will be channeled to discuss and raise ideas and make connections that will one day – soon – improve the world in which we live.
Climate change? Tick. Indigenous affairs? Tick. Vampire Flying Frogs? You bet. I repeat- Vampire. Flying. Frogs. Seriously.
This is very much it’s own event. It will run at the same time, on the same day and in the same building as the TEDxSydney event at the Sydney Opera House. While the Baby Boomers and Gen-X’ers grapple with the issues they created for today, the Millennials will be unsupervised in the next room, tackling the issues and ideas that will improve tomorrow.
TEDxYouth@Sydney looks to dispel the myth that youthfulness is reserved for anyone but the young and vibrant. Indeed, this event and it’s ethos are not wasted on the young. It depends on them. As does the future.
This spirit of tomorrow and creating connections to foster that change is very much at the heart of what the TEDxYouth@Sydney speakers bring to the table in the Joan Sutherland Theatre at the Opera House on May 25th.
Dr Sandra Garrido will bring her experience in music and mental health. Emily Parsons-Lord, who has used and connected climate science in the creation of art will be there. As will Matthew Boon Meng Ng, who is definitely someone you should keep in mind when applying for that internship later in the year.
These people are all looking to inform the world of tomorrow by getting their ideas to people today. As ever, any significant change is fed and nourished by connections made at the genesis of those ideas – connections potentially made at TEDxYouth@Sydney.
And this thirst for change and is evidenced by the fact that TEDxYouth@Sydney 2016 is the biggest edition yet, more than doubling in size from only a couple of years ago. 2,400 young, interested, excited and open-minded people, all looking to make a connection, challenge an idea, have their own ideas challenged and make something of tomorrow.
And more people means more tickets. More tickets means more chances to get involved. For as little as $50 – or one week’s worth of Newtown Thai lunch specials – you can get yourself there. So, throw some canned tuna on the shopping list and eat like a cat for a week.
The Baby Boomers had their shot at making the most of their youthfulness while they were young. Let them thrash out how to pick up those piece in the next room while you get stuck into how tomorrow is going to be that much better.