The University of Arkansas Rome Center recently hosted the official presentation launch of TEDx Roma at the Palazzo Taverna facility. The Rome Center typically would be filled with students pursuing international education, but the COVID-19 pandemic has created new opportunities.

Francesco Bedeschi, Rome Center director, said, "This kind of event allows the Rome Center to expand its network of relationships in order to create more opportunities for students and faculty." The event was supported by the European Institute for Innovation and Sustainability (EIIS), an important partner of the University of Arkansas Rome Center.

The TEDx Roma event is part of the global extension of TED events around the world in a variety of communities whose leaders organize speakers around a specific topic. The TEDx Roma presentations featured video and roundtable discussions about global warming emergencies and innovation in sustainability.

Among the speakers at the Oct. 10 event were the vice-mayor of Rome, Luca Bergamo, and the co-founder of ASVIS–Italian Agency for Sustainable Development and former Italian Minister for Labor and Social Policies, Enrico Giovannini. 

"We have been very happy to host this event and to support TEDx Rome in spreading the message about the urgency of fighting climate change around the world. We are planning to organize more initiatives with the organization in the near future," Bedeschi said.

According to its website, TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is a non-profit organization that aims to share "ideas that deserve to be disseminated." Started as a four-day conference in California in 1984, TED has also established TEDx (where the "x" indicates an independently organized event), bringing a local experience similar to that experienced by attending a TED conference. TEDx events follow a well-defined format, covering a diverse range of topics with "community-driven and bias-free content" organized by volunteers from the community.

TEDxRoma has taken place every year for 6 years in the Italian capital and brings with it an audience of over 1,800 people and 2.3 million views on the TEDx YouTube channel. This is the first year for the event to be hosted by the U of A Rome Center.