By Su Sie Park

Yesterday marked the first day of TEDxNYU’s TEDActive Campus Takeover, an independently organized event hosted by students, which allowed NYU communities around the globe to come together for the TED 2013 conference. The takeover, which includes students from the Abu Dhabi campus, will run until March 1.

The conference is dedicated to sharing ideas of technology, entertainment and design — also known as TED — from the world’s brightest minds.

This is NYU’s third year partnering with TED, and TEDxNYU shows live streams from the TED 2013 conference in Bobst Library.

NYU is one of seven schools in the country chosen by TED to participate in the TED Takeover competition. Schools were chosen by TED based on how strong and well-organized the TEDx groups have been in the past. As one of the top seven schools, NYU fights for the top spot this week during the campus takeover. The winning school will be awarded $10,000.

Each day includes several sessions that feature a different speaker. Following the exclusive TED Talk screenings, TEDxNYU hosts activities such as creating “Then and Now” posters, “Banana Tattoos” and “Jeopardy Style” games.

According to Stern junior and TEDxNYU president Griffin Dooling, the screened talks are only shown at the seven TEDx schools and won’t be available to the public for at least another 12 months.

TEDxNYU partnered with several different student clubs including LiveWellNYU, HashtagNYU, Tech@NYU and the Roosevelt Institute. In total, TEDxNYU is working with 16 clubs in the New York campus as well as student organizations at NYU’s global sites.

This week, TED Takeover is introducing four big projects including the Local Project, organized by HashtagNYU. TEDxNYU has over 150 students around NYU’s global sites in six continents that will be reacting and participating in these events.

“New York is a study abroad site for them,” Dooling said. “The Local Project is a sharing experience that makes NYU unique.”

Abhi Ashutosh, CAS freshman and marketing director of TEDxNYU, has organized a group of around 60 students from NYU to create TEDxNYU posters and engage in social media.

“NYU is a global school with global ideas, just like TED,” Ashutosh said. “TED has a global spirit and brings ideas from people who are around the world. I can imagine no better place for TEDx than at NYU.”

Rahul Sharma, a Tisch freshman who attended Tuesday’s event, said the event is a good opportunity for students to learn important lessons from the speakers and events.

“NYU is full of smart people [interested] in the talks, so I feel they will be benefited,” Sharma said.

Su Sie Park is a contributing writer. Email her at [email protected].