The sung and unsung voices

TEDxOdenseWomen was an initiative that began last year following several years of successful TEDxOdense-events, as women on the team behind TEDxOdense wanted to expand and go beyond what the ordinary TEDx Event could cater to. From this desire, TEDxOdenseWomen was born and is now returning for the second time, this time arranged by an entirely female team—not because we don’t want other genders at our table, but because we would like to showcase what a team of women with willpower can do, and what we as women would like to see more of in the spotlight. That’s the point: To bring us all together to address a group of women’s own, self-determined needs.

This is why we at TEDxOdenseWomen strive to put Bold and Brilliant women on the stage. We believe that women hold immense knowledge, insight, and potential that we as a society can and should benefit from. Therefore, we want to highlight women who can be role models and who are paving the way for young people, who need strong characters to look up to and mirror themselves in. We want to give these women a space where they can Boldly stand in their own Brilliance and be applauded for it. 

That, in its essence, is the thought behind the official TEDWomen theme this year—Bold and Brilliant. As the official announcement states: “This is our year to be bold and brilliant — without apology.”

Of course, our event is inclusive to any gender, and we invite anyone to join. It is our belief, that we all grow, learn, and develop from hearing what the women on this stage have to share. Material, political, and intellectual gender diversity and inclusion is important to both women, men, and anyone in between. 

And we believe that there is always progress to be made, which is why we feel exceptionally fortunate that we can create a platform to level out the gender discrepancies by representing innovative thought leaders to an influential audience. 

We see this gender inclusivity, not as a zero-sum game, where in order for one person to gain, others have to lose, but as a chance for everyone to gain more. 

As stated, behind the scenes, TEDxOdenseWomen is run by a team of professionally and nationally diverse group of women and every one of those women has a personal belief that drove her to be part of this effort. Here are a few glimpses at the thoughts behind the idea (which we find very worth spreading!):

“When women win, we all win. By shining an extra spotlight on women’s achievements, I hope we can inspire more women to turn into role models. I need this for me. I need more female examples.” - Steffie Limère Fugl, Head Organizer and License Holder

“I resonate with the idea of celebrating women’s achievements, as opposed to focusing on the negativity that often derives from women’s struggles. My personal goal is to be able to simply put a spotlight on people doing great things to celebrate women and their achievements, that made a positive impact on their community or field of work.“ - Monika Kosman, Head of Marketing

“I’m a firm believer in equality between all genders and find that highlighting achievements of women is a road to better understanding, inspiration, and further great work.” - Elisabeth Renée Sejbak, Copywriter, Marketing.

“I have often wished I could be a boy for a day, out of pure curiosity, yet always knowing I would still want to be a girl again the next day. I dream that I will see the day when being a boy or a girl is unimportant and uninteresting, to everybody else except perhaps oneself. But until that day comes when we can all move past gender issues, the conversation needs to be had.” - Ioana Lazarescu, Speaker curation and coaching

• Source: tedxodense.com/women