TedX Chennai loses license for flouting community norms

It seems that the Chennai chapter of TedX has lost its license for alleged violations of norms and rules set by the TedX community. TedX is an independently organised Ted talk which focuses on Technology, Entertainment and Design. TED is a nonprofit organisation. TedX is currently trending on Twitter thanks to the TedX Chennai fiasco. The entire letter that was posted by the TedX community highlighting this suspension has been leaked and you can view it here. At this moment we can’t confirm the authenticity of the letter which was tweeted by Madhu ‘MadMan’ Menon ‏@madmanweb. You can check out his tweet here. [caption id=“attachment_553502” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Screengrab of the official TedX website.[/caption] The letter reads,

In India, unlike elsewhere in the world, there have been repeated violations of the TEDx rules. We have been in endless discussion internally and externally with the community in India on how to handle this… We have put specific rules in place that are key to maintaining the TEDx DNA. These rules are non-negotiable. Violation of these rules will result in removal of your license and the name of your TEDx event being frozen for 12 months. There can be: No sponsor logos on stage No sponsors giving TEDx talks on stage No TED branding instead of TEDx No running a TEDx event one day and another event the next day that uses the same funding and sometimes the same speakers - we call this co-branding No exceeding 100 attendee limit We repeatedly discover in India TEDx events: Violation of the 100 person rule — events having over 100 people when the Primary Licensee has not attended TED. This rule is non-negotiable. Sponsors speaking on the stage, one of the absolute biggest violations of the TEDx DNA. Students hosting a TEDx events as part of a campus festival or another event. Incorrect TEDx logos on stage or sponsor logos on stage. Individuals intentionally blurring the difference between TED and TEDx. Speakers who abuse the TEDx platform by turning their speaking opportunity into a promotion for themselves or a book tour. Speaker speaking at more than two TEDx events in any given year, such as Nitin Gupta, please do not book him at your event, he is currently on our speaker blacklist. Most recently, it has also come to our attention that TEDxChennai violated the rules by holding a press conference with sponsors, having a venue sponsor as a speaker on stage and speakers that were part of another conference. After consulting with the TEDx community, TEDx Ambassadors and organizer Kiruba Shankar, we have decided to take the following steps: We will be canceling the TEDxChennai license. Kiruba Shankar has agree to step down from his position as TEDx Ambassador in India.

Strangely the letter has not been posted on TEDx’s official blog. If the letter is true, this is a huge embarrassment for India, especially given that hosting the event is seen as an extremely prestigious opportunity. The letter specifically mentions Chennai, but is largely a warning to TEDx communities across Indian cities. Meanwhile in an interview to the Economic Times Kiruba Shankar, the licencee of TEDx Chennai, admitted to the scrapping of the licence and stated that the mistakes were unintentional.