Executive Director's, Lisa T.D. Nguyen, TEDx Conference Presentation

Soka University in Aliso Viejo, California

Jamie Van recently was in the audience for our founder and executive director’s, Lisa Nguyen, speech at TEDx Conference Orange County at Soka University in Aliso Viejo, California. TEDx Conference is a forum for like-minded individual to share their ideas with their community on a TED-style platform. Her account of the excitement and commotion of attending such an inspiring event is below.

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There were a lot of bright smiles at the TEDx Conference Orange County last weekend. On Friday, we attended the VIP Gala and on Saturday we were in attendance for Lisa’s big speech on avoiding guilt marketing and utilizing business sensibilities.  With the size of the crowd and the thundering chatter going on, it was obvious that there were great expectations for the event.

Senhoa's Founder and Executive Director, Lisa Nguyen, during her speech wearing a traditional Vietnamese attire, an "Ao Dai."

At the beginning of the day, the sky was fairly cloudy but after a while, the sun peeked out of the clouds and shone brilliant beams of light to uplift the general campus mood. Never had I been so excited to go to an event like this one.  The theater for the TEDx Conference was fit for nobles. It was colossal, giving advantage to the speakers as it provided an open environment for engaging communication. Lisa’s speech highlighted the too-often negative angle of guilt marketing that some marketing division strategize to their target audience; a practice that is too easy employed in the NGO world. The overt appeal to senses of fear, guilt and shame correlates to an inactive response as oppose to an active feedback; which the latter can establish a lasting relationship such as volunteering and repeat involvement.  Lisa asserted that Senhoa’s marketing goal is to evoke happy connections with our followers to foster optimism and hope by showcasing how their involvement betters our organization.

TEDx O.C.'s photographer with Jaime, Senhoa's community Outreach Volunteer, and Avra, Senhoa's Communications Coordinator Volunteer (left to right).

All in all, each speaker harmoniously combined their innovative ideas with quirky twists that made them truly special. They made personal connections with a large audience, which enabled powerful communication and identification to their speeches. At one moment, there was even beat-boxing performed onstage!

Overall, it was an amazing and thought-provoking night and we had lots of fun and hopefully, there will be more exciting events that can compare to this one in the future.