AIIAS Business Club hosted a TED-style talk and signaled a trend for a fresh and contemporary style for creating and delivering presentations in the academic community.
LightTalk: A Clear Way Forward, is the title chosen by the organizers to raise interest on themes of uncertainty and disruptions.
This ‘high value production’ held last Thursday, September 26, 2019, featured a speaker lineup from the fields of business, education, and public health.
The show that lasted nearly 4 hours in the AIIAS Amphitheater was taped by the HopeTV Philippines.
As an opening speaker, a pastor’s wife and mother of four Danielle Rios shared a personal testimony on facing unimaginable pain and tragedy, called it ‘the blessing of disruptions’ and turned her recovery journey into hope and assurance for others.
“In this life’s marathon I have so many reasons to stop running. But I am still in the race.” Rios continued, “While being strong, smart, and creative might be the measure of success by many standards, I choose another path which is surrendering to God and accepting his love, grace, and provision.”
IT professional Faelmar Tañada who advocates for ‘software piracy-free community’ talked about how he found a smart way of using alternative software to boost productivity for free.
Graduate School professor, Dr. Prema Gaikwad talked about her encounter with Generation Z and how to be prepared to ‘touch their future’ be developing effective teaching strategies. “Be authentic,” she said. “Don’t be superficial because each generation have different traits.”
Other speakers included business student Edivado Abel, an advocate for healthy family relationships; Seminary student and author of the book “Digital Evangelism”, Aias Cabaça; ADRA Philippines country director, Tom Pignon; and youth enthusiast Romulo Halasan, Jr.
David Allen, is the MBA-student behind the idea of LightTalk. As part of his entrepreneur course requirement, under the guidance of his professor, Dr. LeRoy Ruhupatty, he proposed the idea of having a platform for learning purposes last July 2019. With the support of the business department and business club, the event came into fruition just two months later.
“LightTalk is a program intended to enable the business department and the business club to communicate ideas that can foster change and bring initiatives and make a difference in the world,” said AIIAS Business Department chair, Dr. Kenneth Swansi. “We would want this idea to continue perhaps next year and become part of the business department’s calendar year.”
In the initial stages of planning, the AIIAS administration have shown support for student-led initiatives that can enhance presentation skills. “This is the kind of skill that our students and faculty may choose to develop,” said VP for Academic Administration, Dr. Dolf Oberholster, talking about the stylistic and engaging presentation format of LightTalk. He also acknowledges that the platform is useful even for academic presentations simply because research should also be applicable in many ways.
TED-style talk is gaining popularity in recent years because it enables speakers to tell a story, evoke the imagination of the audience, and also where speakers are not afraid to talk about “the human side”.
All of these are done in 18 minutes or less.
Dr. Ruhupatty from the business department acknowledges that there are various platforms for presentation but LightTalk style is unique. “For the academe, we might want to see the methodology and other details of one’s work, and yes, we already have the platform for that but we need another platform too. Are we capable of it? Yes, indeed!”
The business department is already preparing another series called Christ Method of Management, a continuation of last year’s series but with a new format. The public health is starting a discussion on launching their version of LightTalk as well.
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