We hosted a 3-day gathering for 80+ TEDx organizers from all over the world. This is the summary of what we did and what we learned.

1. HOSTINGATEDxWEEKEND
Learnings from TEDxWeekendMunich 2022
AUTHOR: DORA DZVONYAR | TWITTER @DZDORIE | TEDX@DZVONYAR.COM

2. A TEDxWeekend is a weekend-long
international gathering of TEDx organizers
with city tours and adventures, workshops, and
fun social hangouts. These weekends are
designed to help organizers connect with each
other, celebrate the TED spirit and mission, and
fall in love with the place in which they are held.
PURPOSEOFTHISDOCUMENT
• Record our approach to organizing the
weekend as well as the learnings from
analyzing attendee and team feedback.
• Help other organizers prepare for their own
TEDxWeekend, reducing uncertainty through
sharing recommendations.
OVERVIEW

3. • 20-22 May 2022 in Munich, Germany.
• Hosted & organized by the TEDxTUM team.
We started organizing around 3 months
before but would recommend starting
earlier unless you can dedicate a lot of time
to the project.
• 80 attendees from 18 countries, involved in
the organization of 44 TEDx events.
• TEDxWeekendMunich was one of three
TEDxWeekends that happened in 2022 as a
way of bringing the community back
together after over two years of pandemic.
TEDxWEEKENDMUNICH
SEE REGISTRATION PAGE
BROWSE PHOTOS
WATCH THE AFTERMOVIE WATCH THE TRAILER

4. Friday
16:00 Registration, COVID self-tests, conversation
18:30 Cozy dinner (self-paid)
Saturday
9:00 Breakfast
10:00 Opening session & icebreaker
12:30 Lunch & goodie exchange
14:00 Treasure hunt in Munich
17:00 Free time
19:00 Dinner on the rooftop of a Munich brewery
Sunday
9:00 Morning yoga & mindfulness session
10:00 Breakfast
11:00 Breakout sessions round 1
12:00 Breakout sessions round 2
13:00 Lunch & informal debrief of breakouts
14:30 Wrap-up session
15:00 End of program
PROGRAM ABOUT OUR APPROACH
In designing the program, we were mindful
of…
• Mixing workshops and goal-oriented
discussion with social activities (approx.
40%-60%).
• Mixing structured, semi-structured and
unstructured time.
• Leaving plenty of time for meals and
breaks to allow free conversation.
• Starting with inspirational content in the
opening session and ending with
structured discussion in the breakouts,
assuming that people will have more and
more questions as the weekend develops.
• Showing attendees the local culture of
Munich.
• Allowing for bu
ff
er time to avoid rushing.

5. The goal of TEDxWeekendMunich was to share
ideas, experiences, and solutions with each other
and to encourage everyone to contribute. We
believe that each TEDx event and each team
member has their own "secret sauce". Sometimes
the more veteran organizers and large events
shine so brightly that the newer or smaller events
feel like they have nothing to share. We made it
our mission to
fi
nd everyone’s secret sauce and
enable them to share it.
The event design snuck in some local
fl
avors, with
the occasional bottle of beer and sweet mustard as
well as the colors of the German
fl
ag. The design
was represented on a variety of giveaways.
We encourage other TEDxWeekends to pick a
theme and think about what they want to achieve
during the process.
THETHEME:"SECRETSAUCE"

6. GROUP PHOTO WALL
STAGE BACKDROP
POSTERS
BADGES

7. At TEDxTUM, we like to create task forces for projects that are not our main event. This enables team
members to contribute to activities beyond their regular sub-team as well as to invest more time than
usual over a limited period to realize a project they care deeply about.
The TEDxWeekendMunich organizing task force was mostly sta
ff
ed with former team leads that were still
on the team. This had the following advantages: These senior team members were familiar with the TEDx
community and its gatherings (most had attended one or more TEDxWeekend in the past) and the current
team leads were able to continue focusing on the organization of our main event without the additional
workload. Of course, this was only possible because of the size of our core team (approx. 40 members).
We picked the following areas of responsibility: Session Content, Activities & Culture, Catering &
Restaurants, Logistics, Documentation (photo & video), Attendee Communication, Goodies &
Giveaways, Budget & Ticketing. Each responsibility was sta
ff
ed with 1-2 leading team members (with some
overlap) that involved others as needed. Of course, many more team members contributed to all of these
areas!
Our recommendations: Distribute responsibility among multiple, preferably senior, members of your team.
There should never be only one person responsible (see also: bus factor)! Remember to keep your current
team leads and the rest of the team informed and excited about the progress and to involve your newer
team members for whom this is a great opportunity to contribute and get a taste of the TEDx spirit.
TEAMSETUP

8. TEDxWeekends are made with
fi
nancial support from
TED, so if you are selected to organize such a gathering,
you will design your budget and liaise with them about
it. Budgeting was a big part of our process and it was
also full of challenges!
Just like with your events, you will need to account for all
costs, collect invoices for everything and prepare a
reimbursement package so that your costs can be
reimbursed by TED. Don’t forget that you will have
income from registration fees which should of course
show up in your budget as revenue.
In order to kick-start your process, you can have a look at
our budget sheet below and get an impression of the
kinds of costs we had and the level of detail at which we
recorded them. We removed the amounts, since those
will vary widely by region. Please note that we don’t pay
for any on-campus venue that we use, so the budget
only shows costs for any external venues.
BUDGET
LEARNINGS & RECOMMENDATIONS
• We faced all kinds of challenges connected to the budget, the
biggest of which was the variability of ticket income. We didn’t
know the number of attendees and thus the ticket revenues until
very late, which is quite di
ff
erent from our events that usually sell
out fast. To address this, we made plans for 40%, 70% and 100% of
our capacity and checked them with TED. These plans did not
scale linearly because many of the costs were either
fi
xed or the
full amount has to be spent before the registration deadline (e.g.
goodie orders).
• Since you will be paying for the items in your budget to be later
reimbursed by TED, make sure you know how much you need at
which point in time and what can be covered out of existing
budget reserves. If your costs surpass your current reserve, check
in with TED about your options.
• When making
fi
nancial obligations, be aware of the cancellation
conditions and make sure that these are reasonable (e.g. in case of
cancellation because of COVID or uther unforeseen circumstances)
- just like you do with your events!
• When getting o
ff
ers from restaurants and event venues, make sure
there is
fl
exibility in terms of group size and ask for the deadline
to communicate the
fi
nal head count. In our case, most venues
asked for a minimum turnover to make the reservation.
• Our experience shows that the parts of the weekend that cost the
least where those that attendees loved the most. We recommend
that you keep it simple - for instance, depending on your venue
you don’t need a full production team to run a plenary session,
you might do well with a projector and simple loudspeaker since
the focus is not on the presentations, but on the conversation. Also,
instead of a fully sta
ff
ed bu
ff
et, you might opt for wraps,
sandwiches, or bowls. Find the right balance that works for you! TEDXWEEKENDMUNICH BUDGET SHEET

9. When we announced TEDxWeekendMunich, we had all the necessary information - including
open registration form - ready to go. This was quite di
ffi
cult to achieve because we had to
make a lot of decisions early on, but it was convenient because attendees could register
straight away! We showed all information on one page so we didn’t need to update multiple
fi
les and we added details whenever we received multiple questions about a certain topic. We
used the ticketing system we already know from our events and set it up so we had to accept
every registration, which enabled us to check whether bookings were only made by TEDx
organizers and whether everything was
fi
lled out correctly.
The page was sent out to licensees by TED and we also reached out through community
channels such as the TEDxHub, international organizer Facebook group, or personal
organizer contacts, and Instagram accounts of the major European TEDx events. We did a lot
of outreach ourselves and it was quite time-consuming, but absolutely worth it to see the
wonderful mix of organizers attend the event!
ANNOUNCEMENTOFTHEEVENT
SEE REGISTRATION PAGE SEE BOOKING FORM

10. The goal of the opening session was to create a
feeling of togetherness as well as open
people’s minds to the great things happening in
the TEDx universe. Ideally, they would leave the
session with more questions than they came
with and lots of new ideas for their events,
without feeling intimidated by larger, more
veteran events.
We structured the session as follows:
10 min arrival bu
ff
er
15 min introduction by TEDxTUM team
05 min short activity (Rock Paper Scissors)
15 min "state of the X" by TED team
40 min "show & tell" by 6 TEDx organizers
45 min icebreaker (Queen Bee Challenge)
10 min overview of the rest of the day
10 min bu
ff
er
THEOPENINGSESSION LEARNINGS & RECOMMENDATIONS
• Opening with a plenary session takes the pressure o
ff
of attendees to have to socialize in smaller groups and
contribute solutions straight away.
But: Don’t do one-to-many "lecturing" for too long! Mix
the formats and keep the group energy high with small
activities.
• The "state of the X" presentation focused on the
amazing accomplishments of the world-wide TEDx
community and was perfect to set the scene for the
weekend.
• For the "show & tell" format we asked speci
fi
c
organizers to bring ONE aspect of their TEDx event in
the format "What was the problem?" - "How did you
address it?" - "What would you recommend to others?"
which forced them to focus on one speci
fi
c, tangible
takeaway as opposed to general recommendations. We
strongly recommend pre-curating lightning talks and
making sure to have a mix of types of events, countries,
level of experience etc. to represent the community.
• An icebreaker with an easy, social task to solve in
smaller groups makes sure that everyone gets to know
a handful of other attendees, thus feeling more
connected and ready for the weekend. Be mindful of
more introverted attendees (e.g. no forced touching,
performing, exaggerated competitiveness)!

11. SHOW & TELL BY ORGANIZERS
QUEEN BEE CHALLENGE

12. The goal of the treasure hunt was for the
attendees to enjoy Munich, its history and
popular culture as well as to hang out, have fun
and make new connections in an informal
setting.
We used the app ActionBound to design 8
di
ff
erent routes through the center of Munich.
Each group had 7-9 members and was
accompanied by a member of the TEDxTUM team.
Every stop on the route had information about
the location as well as a short activity, such as
taking a team picture, sharing something about
oneself or a simple "who laughs
fi
rst" challenge.
We also had two strategic stops where all routes
crossed paths and our team members were
waiting with local brands of drinks or snacks,
which people absolutely loved. Everyone received
a small surprise gift at the end of the route.
THETREASUREHUNT
LEARNINGS & RECOMMENDATIONS
• There is a wide range of activities you can do and you might opt
for o
ff
ering di
ff
erent activities for each group. What we liked
about the treasure hunt is that it showed aspects of the city in
an interesting way and got people to interact. Moreover, it was
not cost-intensive and felt very personal - attendees described
the nice surprises along the way as highlights of the route and
generally appreciated getting to know our favorite places in the
city. However, this only worked because Munich is such a
walkable, compact city!
• Make sure to plan ahead and prepare a bad weather
alternative! If the weather is not great, remind attendees to
bring appropriate clothing ahead of the weekend.
• Consider pre-assigning people to groups to obtain an ideal mix
of TEDx teams. We printed a group name on the badge and had
responsible team member call out for their group.
• We strongly recommend having a team member accompany
the groups - especially if you use technology such as an app
where you might need to o
ff
er support! The signs we had for
each group and at the manned stations proved to be very
useful for navigation and group identi
fi
cation.
• Don’t overdo the content and duration! The primary objective is
for attendees to have fun and not feel rushed. The length of
the treasure hunt (2.5-3 hours) was at the maximum of what
attendees could take.
• Activities make for great photo and video material! Account for
appropritate documentation depending on your plans. In our
case, the photographers and videographers followed two
di
ff
erent groups and then stayed at one of the manned stations
to wait for the others.

13. GROUP PHOTO CHALLENGE QUIZ ABOUT MUNICH
CROSSING THE FINISH LINE
WHO LAUGHS FIRST CHALLENGE

14. With a TEDxWeekend, Saturday night is the logical time
for a signature event! We picked one of the oldest Munich
breweries as a location and the weather permitted us to
use the roof terrace. Bavarian food and beer were
accompanied by some Bavarian music and lots of
conversation. Our team dressed up in traditional Bavarian
clothing to accompany the program.
Our recommendations:
• Pick a setting and menu that is most meaningful for
your city and its culture. In our case, every detail that
we thought was "too Bavarian" was appreciated most by
attendees.
• Be mindful of vegetarians, vegans and food allergies.
This can be di
ffi
cult when going traditional! Moreover,
alcohol should not be at the center of the experience.
• As with everything, be mindful of introverts and
generally make sure relaxed conversation is possible
(e.g. don’t choose a loud club or concert as the
location). After all, this is the main goal of your
TEDxWeekend!
THESIGNATUREDINNER

15. We o
ff
ered a morning Yoga and mindfulness session (hosted
by a local Yoga teacher) for the early birds and those who
wanted to get centered after all the input from the
fi
rst day.
The weather permitted us to be outside and start the day in
an iconic Munich location close to the venue.
Our recommendations:
• We recommend having a calm activity as part of your
schedule for people to re
fl
ect (does not need to be Yoga).
• If you go for exercise, make sure to make it easy enough
for anyone to participate - attendees should not feel
excluded or un
fi
t, but energized and empowered!
• Remind attendees to bring appropriate clothing and
items needed (e.g. towel) ahead of the weekend as well
as the day before the activity.
• Be
fl
exible in terms of group size because many people
might decide to sleep in after all.
• Make sure you have a team member that is not too
exhausted (e.g. not in charge of dinner the night before)
cover this activity.
MORNINGYOGA

16. Breakout sessions are a great way to enable TEDx organizers to
learn from each other and work on solving challenges in concrete
topic areas. We decided to have two 60-minute sessions so
everyone could participate in discussions around two di
ff
erent
topics. Our goal was to have 8 topics in each round (16 overall) and
we made an e
ff
ort to o
ff
er topics that our attendees found most
relevant. Our approach was as follows:
• We collected topics of interest in the registration form as well
as on a board during the Saturday program.
• We clustered the suggestions and merged them with other
topics we thought were relevant (e.g. these suggested by TED),
ending up with 16 possible topics.
• Attendees were asked to pick two topics through a form on
Saturday night as well as indicate whether they want to give
advice or receive advice on each topic (or both). We used this
information to determine interest and assign these topics to
rooms of adequate size. Some topics didn’t get enough interest
while others were so popular that we decided to dedicate two
sessions to them.
On the day, attendees were free to spontaneously pick their topic
for each session using the schedule we provided. Each group was
accompanied by one of our team to make sure the conversation is
documented and moderated. Results were written on posters and
hung up in the main room to discuss during lunch.
BREAKOUTSESSIONS LEARNINGS & RECOMMENDATIONS
• We recommend scheduling the breakout sessions on the last
day, when questions have naturally emerged from people’s
conversations and they are ready to discuss concrete topics.
• The mechanism for pre-selecting topics proved very useful,
although it required quite some input from attendees, requiring
us to ask and remind them to do the next step. We recommend
to simplify if possible, but not to go with a completely free format
where everyone can o
ff
er a topic (e.g. a barcamp).
• We found it useful to ask people whether they want to
primarily give or receive advice, which gave us an impression of
the level of experience of the attendees regarding each topic
and also sensitized them to the value of joining a session to
pass on their wisdom.
• The attendee feedback revealed some people wishing for more
structured discussions, while others would have preferred less
structure. This likely depended on the groups they were in and
whether the discussion went as they expected.
• Having one of our team members in each group assured us
that the discussion would be moderated and documented. Our
team members were instructed to be as present as needed
depending on what the group dynamic requires, but not
dominate the discussion. Some had to actively push the
conversation forward or make sure the group stayed on track,
while others had to involve quieter attendees and some didn’t
need to do much more than listen in.
• There was no room in the schedule for discussing the results
in a structured manner afterwards. This was an intentional
decision (these discussions tend to be long and draining), but
several people remarked that this would have been useful.

17. TOPIC SUGGESTIONS
BREAKOUT SESSIONS

18. Any TEDxWeekend will evidently also be about local food! On both Saturday
and Sunday we o
ff
ered a breakfast bu
ff
et put together by our team and a
light lunch. As a local highlight, the lunch on Saturday was catered by our
former TEDxTUM speaker Vincent Fricke with a holistic approach to
sustainable cooking and the cakes at breakfast were baked by local
grandmothers as part of a Munich-based social startup. The evening event
featured all-Bavarian food. Most meals were vegetarian.
Our recommendations:
• You will likely want to o
ff
er breakfast, lunch and dinner during the
program, as well as some snacks, co
ff
ee/tea and drinks. Not all of this
needs to be local, of course.
• We recommend to keep it simple and think about the e
ff
ort for your
team. For example, the breakfast bu
ff
et was amazing but required our
team to cut vegetables, arrange food on plates, use the dishwasher etc.
which took a lot of time and e
ff
ort! Food that is already in bowls (e.g.
salads, burritos) reduces logistical e
ff
ort.
• Think about sustainability, e.g. by avoiding single-use cutlery, plates and
cups (especially plastic) and reducing or eliminating meat and animal
products. This is often di
ffi
cult if you want to have traditional food, but
try to
fi
nd a balance (and of course o
ff
er vegetarian/vegan alternatives).
• Keep meals light, especially the lunches! You don’t want attendees to fall
asleep. Be mindful of allergies and food intolerances and make sure to
ask for them upfront (e.g. during registration) and label the food
accordingly.
• Think of fun, thoughtful details and local stories you can tell about the
food and drinks o
ff
ered.
APPROACHTOFOOD
BREAKFAST
LIGHT LUNCH

19. There are several organizational reasons for communicating
regularly with your attendees, e.g. last-minute changes in the program
or reminders of where to meet or what to bring. Since we didn’t
fi
nd
email to be the right channel for this, we created an "Announcements"
WhatsApp group where only the organizing team was allowed to post
and attendees could only react. We also created a "Conversation"
WhatsApp group for people to discuss and connect to each other.
Links to join both groups were shared via email with all attendees and
shown as QR codes in the venue and we asked them to alert us if
none of their group had access to WhatsApp which wasn’t the case.
Our recommendations:
• No matter the channel you pick, you will never make everyone
happy. We recommend to use a service your attendees already
use since it’s unlikely that they will install a new app for this
purpose.
• Find a way to make your announcements stand out among the
chatter. In our case, having two groups made it possible for people
to only join the announcements group or mute the conversation
group.
• Think about communication before and after the weekend.
Sharing small details upfront such as impressions from setting up
creates excitement. Our attendees asked each other to share their
social media pro
fi
les in the conversation group after the event
which had a nice e
ff
ect.
ATTENDEECOMMUNICATION

20. The goals of your social media strategy will likely be to inform the world-
wide community about what is going on, create some buzz around your
TEDxWeekend and involve the people and events present in sharing
impressions. In addition, you want to document your TEDxWeekend on
photo and video!
We created several animated stickers with the event design for Instagram
and got to do a takeover of the @tedx_o
ffi
cial account (see here). Several
photo opportunities at the venues (e.g. a group photo corner and props)
motivated attendees to take and share their photos. Finally, we used the
photo sharing software Dropevent to share our photographers’ shots with
attendees and have them upload their own pictures for everyone to use.
Our recommendations:
• Account for group photo opportunities in your program and brief your
photographers accordingly so they don’t miss these moments!
• Props and dedicated backdrops enable your attendees to take their
own pictures.
• When it comes to social media,
fi
nd a way to playfully transmit
information. Involve your attendees where appropriate and have fun
with it! Best is to have 1-3 dedicated team members taking turns
covering the program but keeping a uni
fi
ed voice and style.
• The usage of the photo sharing solution meant that attendees had
access to professional shots already during the program. This
resulted in many of them sharing these pictures on social media on
their way back home, which looked great and made us happy. Many
also shared photos of moments our photographers missed.
DOCUMENTATION&SOCIALMEDIA

22. Attendees received giveaways at various points throughout
TEDxWeekendMunich. At registration, they were free to take a bag,
an x-shaped bottle opener and a gingerbread heart which is typical to
Bavarian culture. They received further small gifts during the treasure
hunt and evening event (Bavarian souvenirs, temporary tattoos).
In addition, attendees brought their own event giveaways for a
goodie exchange during lunch on Saturday, which was incredibly
popular.
Our recommendations:
• Select giveaways unique to your event! Use your event design
where possible and select things that relate to the local culture.
• Think about sustainability (e.g. eco-friendly fabrics and print,
recycled or biodegradable materials). Rather go for one less
giveaway instead of sacri
fi
cing on sustainability!
• Go for things that people will likely use, which is more sustainable
than giveaways that are thrown away. Instead of pre-
fi
lling bags,
give attendees the opportunity to select the giveaways they truly
want.
• Think about what information you need from attendees (e.g. t-shirt
size) to order your giveaways and make sure you get it on time.
• If you want to do a goodie exchange, remind attendees to bring
their goodies from home.
GIVEAWAYS&GOODIEEXCHANGE

23. ECO-FRIENDLY BAGS WITH EVENT DESIGN
BAVARIAN SOUVENIRS
BAVARIAN GINGERBREAD HEARTS

24. We believe that TEDxWeekends are an amazing way to get the
world-wide community together. However, the organization of a
TEDxWeekend is an immense e
ff
ort that is comparable to putting
on a main event, and it will considerably bind your team’s
capacity. Make sure to have clear responsibilities and team
members who are willing and capable to invest the time and
energy needed. Moreover, we recommend to organize at least
one regional workshop and attend another international
gathering (e.g. TEDFest or another TEDxWeekend) before going
for this format.
In the case of TEDxWeekendMunich, we were lucky that many
things that were out of our control (e.g. weather) went our way! We
were thrilled by the energy of attendees, the vibes during the
weekend and the incredibly good feedback that followed. The
weekend was also very energizing for our newer team members
that hadn’t been to any gatherings in the past years due to the
pandemic.
We put together a package of internal documents that we used
to plan TEDxWeekendMunich - we directly and indirectly refer to
them a lot in the previous sections. Feel free to check them out
and use them for planning your TEDxWeekend. See you there!
WHEREDOWEGOFROMHERE?
TEDXWEEKENMUNICH PLANNING DOCUMENTS