This Saturday, we hosted the greatly anticipated TEDxYouth@Hewitt event. Part of a global series of events, Hewitt’s youth conference reflects the efforts of many, including a very dedicated group from our upper school community, who worked extremely hard to put this together.
Hewitt hosted this event for the second time this past Saturday, November 19, and the show benefited a lot from last year’s experience. For example, when it comes to running the technical aspects of an event of this magnitude, it would be wise to practice before the day of the show. I am a strong believer in improvisation, but it can only take you so far. So this year, we did a full sound check and rehearsal a week early instead of the night before!
From a techie’s perspective, this year’s event was extremely exciting on multiple levels. We bought new tech equipment, hired a professional film crew, and learned new ways to use our old “stuff.”
We now know how to hook up a Macbook or Dell Laptop to the school’s sound system in the gym, which enables us to hear our music in high quality surround sound…Dance party anyone? But personally, the most exciting aspect of the show is the new sound mixer. For those of you who did not see our old sound system, it was a great system… in 1970. Talk about a “breakthrough” moment! We also bought a few new types of cables and a lot of gaff tape (a techie’s most-needed necessity).
However, even with a lot of practice and great equipment, there were still a few technical glitches. During the show, the microphones of both performers on stage stopped working (sorry, Morgan and Gab). Now you probably are thinking that we did something extremely complex to fix the problem. Sadly, no. We had to go on stage, interrupt the performance, and restart the microphones. It did the trick, but not very discreetly.
I have been teching for a long time now and can say with confidence that Hewitt is going in a great direction technologically. The amount of responsibility and experience we are getting as students is just as breakthrough-worthy.