TEDxRosario - Javier Yunes - Organizer

The Hack: Don't worry too much.

Javier Yunes, whom I met at TEDFest last year, is the organizer for TEDxRosario in Argentina. His town has over 1 million citizens, and thousands of them come to their event each year. He's most excited about a recent Organizers' workshop he attended in Bariloche and told us the story of his first workshop in 2010 on a floating hotel in Amazonia.

Javier tells a great story about a big surprise at TEDXRosario 2014 which was held outside, and a sudden rainstorm forced the event to halt. He and his team were resourceful and located a source of umbrellas, but not enough, so people had to share. Sharing umbrellas turned into an unexpected community building activity. He says the best part of the event was the rain. Note: Maybe they didn't think that at the time.

Javier has been producing TEDx events since 2009; he was one of the first. And in talking to him, you can tell that there's a lovely, friendly rivalry between him and other South American countries, especially Brazil. He says, "We're catching up."

The Plaza before the rain started

We change our venue every year, so we have a lot of fires to put out."Javier Yunes, TEDxRosario, Organizer

The Lightning Round

Tell us a bit about your background and your TEDx origin story.
Javier was one of the first to get a TEDx license back in 2009. He's been to TEDActive (Palm Springs), Doha and TEDFest.
How many TEDx events have you worked with or produced?
There's a lot of TEDx events in Argentina, even though he says that Argentina is a late bloomer (as compared to Brazil). He's a big part of the South American TEDx community.
What makes your TEDx unique?
Their emphasis on workshops and constantly improving. They also produce their event in a new venue every year, so are always challenging themselves.
What’s your Superpower?
Organizing
What was the biggest surprise while working on your event?
The high attrition rate for attendees. Sometimes as high as 30%, even when they confirm. We had a great conversation on this topic.
Every event has its challenges, what was the biggest dragon you had to overcome?
How do you find the energy to keep doing it year after year? Note: They took 2015 off as a rebuilding, rest years.
What’s one piece of advice you have for veteran organizers? For first-timers?
Go to a regional TEDx Organizers workshop.
Looking forward to your next event, what excites you the most?
Hoping for no rain. (See the theme image at the top of the page)
What’s a TEDx event that you’d like to attend?
TEDxSydney, TEDxBali, TEDxSaoPaulo, TEDxAmsterdam, TEDxVienna and TEDxVillnois
The show is called Hacking the Red Circle, so what's your best hack?
Don't worry too much. You will learn to manage the details, but focus on enjoying your event. Javier says that they got really good a putting out fires...

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