In a campaign of sorts, some students have taken to social media reposting pictures of the ULM campus with a big “X.”

This online campaign culminated in the announcement of a TEDx event at ULM during the Spring semester of 2019.

The TEDx event’s topic will be “Coloring Outside the Lines.” According to the event’s website “The speakers at TEDxULM will be thought leaders and trailblazers from diverse fields who look at things in non-traditional and in unconventional ways.”

TED is a nonprofit devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short, powerful talks (18 minutes or less), according to their website. While the program started in 1984 as a conference focusing on technology, entertainment and design, today the program covers a variety of topics in multiple languages. TEDx talks are independently ran and organized while still under the TED name.

The TEDx event at ULM is being organized independently by four students and one professor.

Ashish Dev, a sophomore computer science major, is the main organizer of the event. Dev alongside his co-organizer Joshua Comer, a communications professor, helped bring TEDx to the university.

Three other students Samrat Hamal, Asja Jordan and Shivam Kharga are in charge of production, marketing and web managing, respectively.

“We tried to bring an element of surprise in our campaign. That’s why we kept posting those images on social media without a clear description,” Dev said.

For weeks, the three students built up suspense on social media by posting various pictures of the campus with a big “X” photoshopped into the images.

According to Dev, he and the other organizers will select five speakers for the event. Among other things, the closer the topics reflect the theme of the talk will determine who the group of organizers choose.

Applications are available now for submission through the TEDxULM website. The event will be held in March 2019.