Job uncertainty and Commonwealth spending cutbacks in Canberra have helped drain a wellspring of optimism and ideas which peaked in 2010 with the first TEDx conference in the ACT.
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For five years volunteers staged TEDx in Canberra based on a global concept of bringing technology, entertainment and design ideas together for a day-long conference. The x was added to indicate its independence. Their goal was to use live presentations to help communities, organisations and individuals spark conversations and connection.
Creative catalyst Stephen Collins said it was terrifying for 15 volunteers, who had never organised anything as big, to invite creative people, futurists and scientists to Canberra at their own cost to share their ideas for a better city and world for the first TEDx in 2010.
"Most of it was done by sticking a wet finger in the air and saying, does this feel right?" Mr Collins said.
"2014 was tough, people were saying I am not quite sure what is going to happen to my job, and that's not just the public service. Look at Customs and Border Protection's potential move out of Belconnen, people are not sure what is going on, they are not sure what they can commit to," he said.
As a result, TEDx's team of unpaid volunteers, who spent 3500 hours organising last year's conference, announced it will not be organising the conference in spring this year.
"Long term volunteers have said, 'you know what, I'm planning to have a baby', or 'spending more time with my children', or 'changing jobs to do other things in my life'," Mr Collins said.
TEDx's first conference in the National Library of Australia drew an audience of 300. Last year inventors, social justice campaigners, and social business founders joined scientists, researchers and musicians at the Canberra Theatre, one of several sponsors, for the conference. A core team of 17 leaders and their teams of two to six people put together a huge program.
"We have a fantastic relationship with the Canberra Theatre Centre, when we let them know, they were disappointed,'' Mr Collins said. "Last year they were amazing, they went out of their way to make our lives easier."
He estimated paying retail prices to stage TEDx would total about $200,000. "If we paid wages to volunteers it would be another $200,000. We don't generate near that amount of cash, we get a lot of in kind support from sponsors which makes a huge difference."
Mr Collins said TEDx built a community of people starting conversations around big ideas, both global and more specific to Canberra. He agreed with one of their sponsors, on hearing the news 2015's conference was being cancelled, that they would rather run a brilliant event than a sloppy one.
Mr Collins said organisers would rebuild a team of volunteers for a re-invigorated conference in 2016.
