Through the Community Partnership Programme, Mind Map Pro is supporting diverse groups from the local community by providing free tickets to attend TEDxBristol on 2-3 November 2017.
Tess from our team recently met with Euella Jackson and Alexie Segal, two of the recipients of tickets through the programme, to chat about their experiences and feelings about the upcoming event.
Both Euella and Alexie work for Rife, a non-profit online magazine that is made by the young people of Bristol for the young people of Bristol.
Here’s what happened when Tess met Euella and Alexie:
I walked into the Watershed, which is at Bristol Harbourside, and met Euella and Alexie in their office at the Pervasive Media Studio, a co-working space of over 100 artists, creative companies, technologists and academics.
They introduced me to some of their colleagues, including artists and editors, then we sat down together so that I could interview them about life at Rife and their feelings about the upcoming TEDxBristol event.
Tess: So firstly, could you introduce yourself and introduce Rife?
Alexie: I’m Alexie, and I’m one of the in-house Rife Journalists. Rife is an online magazine that is entirely created by young people. Its purpose is to give a voice to young people in Bristol.
Euella: And I’m Euella, I’m also an in-house journalist for Rife. I help out with the Rife Guide too, coordinating it by finding what’s going on in Bristol and putting it in one place for young people to find and access.
Tess: What sort of things do you get up to at Rife?
Alexie: We do a range of things from creating weekly content to running social media accounts. We also help with outreach to more young content creators, spreading ways for them to get involved through workshops and networking.
Euella: On a typical day, we’d be planning articles or content that we want to publish, interacting with our audience through social media and getting out and about in Bristol. We think it’s important that we don’t just stay in our office, we call it the “Watertank”. We make an effort to meet people and run workshops to pass on the skills we have learnt to others.
Alexie: We are a bit like a mini news room, so if we see an upcoming event that we think is relevant, we’ll make an appearance and let whoever is there know who we are. Otherwise we are busy making content that we hope will connect with young people. We normally have busy, full schedules each week!
Euella: We also host workshops here or go into schools and different community organisations to teach them anything from writing articles to vlogging or boosting their employability skills.
Tess: What can you tell me about projects outside of Rife?
Alexie: Everyone involved in Rife is here because we have our own creative interests. There is such a range, I’m photography based whereas Euella is into YouTube and filmmaking. Imogen, another colleague who isn’t here today, is a poet and theatre maker and we are able to further develop these skills during our time at Rife. Also, just being part of Rife helps you to find new interests that you can go on and do outside of Rife.
Tess: So what do you see yourself doing in 5 years?
Alexie: I’d like to be able to make a living doing what I love, which is freelance filmmaking and photography and building my brand.
Euella: On YouTube, I discuss sexism and relationships and I’d like to build on that by instilling confidence in young people and women. Whatever I do, whether it’s filmmaking or writing, I want to keep those themes central to what I’m doing.
Tess: How do you feel about receiving tickets to attend TEDxBristol through the Community Partnership Programme?
Alexie: Excited, TED is a really world-wide brand and TEDx events are known for delivering interesting and ground-breaking talks that actually get people thinking about new concepts and ideas.
Euella: I’m very excited as well. I think there’s something quite different about being in that space rather than watching it online. You can feel the ideas buzzing around and see the cogs turning in the audience.
Tess: Why do you think it is important that Mind Map Pro and other Community Partnership Sponsors got on board with this programme?
Alexie: Making it accessible to those that don’t have the means to attend is really important, and I think those people may get more out of it than the people who could easily afford to pay for a ticket.
Euella: Knowledge is power and it’s a shame that you have to put a price on knowledge – you know, it’s not always accessible. It’s a really nice gift and a lot of people will appreciate it because it is not something you get to do every day.
Tess: Why do you think it is important that diverse groups within the local community are reached for this event?
Alexie: Bristol is a multi-cultural but divided place, often very class divided. By offering different and sometimes marginalised groups a chance to be a part of the event will help with the integration of these people. It will help everyone realise that we are actually all the same.
Euella: It’s also about the widening of networks. You can spread knowledge more widely by speaking to just one person from a diverse community because those ideas can move through generations, through people and through neighbourhoods, so that’s a very exciting thing.
Tess: How will you share what you learn with your community?
Alexie: We’ll probably do lots of live tweeting and social media, then we could create content around the inspiring stuff we hear and get it out to our audience.
Euella: We value starting conversations so I think it will be good just going there and seeing how these ideas could apply to young people.
Tess: Is there a speaker that you’re particularly looking forward to and why?
Alexie: We actually shared a ferry ride with Mena Fombo, who is one of the TEDxBristol speakers, and she treated us to a mini version of the talk! She sounds great and I also think Clayton Planter sounds brilliant, his talk is about learning the legal hustle.
Euella: I met him yesterday, his project is called Street2Boardroom and it seems really interesting.
Alexie: I think all of them sound great, but those two particularly stood out to me.
Tess: The final question is: If you were to give a TEDx talk, what would you talk about?
Alexie: I would probably do mine around the article I’m currently writing, which is how you can use bad role models to help you grow. You can do the opposite or you can take the good. You see them for who they are and you decide what you want to be.
Euella: I think it would probably be about an article I wrote too, it was about an idea of space invaders and the way in which people’s bodies belong to certain spaces. We associate different types of people in different spaces, so I’ve explored what happens when your body goes into a space that it doesn’t seem to fit into. You can learn to occupy a space that doesn’t immediately seem yours and that can be empowering.
In addition to the support as a Community Partnership Sponsor, Mind Map Pro will be live mind mapping the talks at TEDxBristol so that audiences around the world can access the powerful ideas in real-time.
Follow the live mind mapping at https://tedxbristol.mindmappro.com.
