TEDxCampinas - Mario Giotto, Organizer

The Hack: Be humble about the TEDx brand. Don't fall into the trap of being put on a pedestal

TEDxCampinas held their first event in March 2018. We had this conversation precisely 16 weeks before the big day. Mario Gioto, the Organizer, is also a TEDx Translator. There are over one million people in this city that is about 2 hours outside of Sao Paulo in Brazil.

He and two friends applied for the license and built a team with some of their close friends. Within four days of posting a call for volunteers on Facebook, they had over 60 people sign up.

Campinas is the Silicon Valley of Brazil and provides a wealth of sources for speakers and team members. There's an innovation hub associated with the University, and they almost instantly had 150 recommendations for speakers.

As this is their first TEDx event, it was great to hear that the way the team has worked out has been so natural and fulfilling. He mentioned that the most significant challenge is that TEDx is not a known brand in the city.

"I'm in the grey zone between being afraid and being calm"16 weeks before the event, TEDxCampinas Organizer, Mario Giotto

The Lightning Round

Tell us a bit about your background and your TEDx origin story.
Campinas is a big city, but had no TEDx event. Three friends got together and applied for the license in 2017 and produced the first event in March 2018.
How many TEDx events have you worked with or produced?
The is their first one.
What makes your TEDx unique?
They focused a lot of energy on the experiences. They want the attendees to leave the vent thinkg about the action and how involved they were.
What’s your Superpower?
Collaborating
What was the biggest surprise while working on your event?
When they were granted the Theater at their local Town Hall.
Every event has its challenges, what was the biggest dragon you had to overcome?
We still have a community where TED is not well known.
What’s one piece of advice you have for veteran organizers? For first-timers?
Mario says that he's gotten a lot of advice from this podcast. We'll have to talk to him again to see what he'd say now that the first event is done. So the advice is, listen to this podcast 😉
Looking forward to your next event, what excites you the most?
Having someone do Sign Language at the event.
What’s a TEDx event that you’d like to attend?
TedxSydney and events that are run by TEDx Organizers he has met over the past couple years.
The show is called Hacking the Red Circle, so what's your best hack?
Be humble about the brand. Don't fall in to the trap of being put on a pedestal.

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