Interview with TED X NTU advisor Abu Bakr Azam

Published By: Vivian Lim Pei Min

Abu Bakr Azam (left) started his TEDxNTU journey in 2021 as a speaker curator volunteer. Subsequently, he served as the event’s co-curator in 2022, lead curator in 2023, and chair in 2024. This year, he holds the position of TEDxNTU advisor.

When first joining TEDxNTU’s as a volunteer, I discovered how big the volunteer team was. As a member within one of the many committees, I was impressed by the ability of the EXCO team to handle this large group of volunteers, committees, and the event itself. Upon learning that one of the EXCO members has been in this event for five years, and once helmed the entire team, I was excited to find out more about his experience in TEDxNTU. Join me as I interview graduating PhD student from the interdisciplinary graduate programme Abu Bakr Azam about his four years of experience volunteering for and organising five TEDxNTU events.

What drew you to TEDxNTU five years ago, and walk me through how you went from committee member to overseeing all nine committees – was there a specific moment you realized you wanted to lead the whole thing?

I'll be honest. It’s the (chance to stay in a dorm) room. But jokes aside, I have a very high system of commitment – if I am getting something out of it (the role) like a (dorm room), I might as well give my 100 percent to make sure I’m worthy of it. I applied the same principle to my TEDxNTU experiences: I made sure that I was one of the people who was committed enough, or perhaps the only person who was good enough for the role. That’s how it worked out, year after year. So even now as an advisor, I think I’ve spent a lot of time behind the scenes to make sure that every single detail has been accounted for. I use various resources to elevate the whole event.

It’s funny how I became the chair. The chair for 2023 was about to pass his role over. He was concerned as the person he had in mind at first was very hesitant to do it. So I was like, '...somebody has to do it.' Otherwise the event goes flat. No chairperson, no event, no committee.

What's your philosophy when choosing speakers – what qualities or elements make you excited about someone taking the TEDxNTU stage?

The former head of TED has written a book about how you curate talks. He had this one example about somebody from Africa who was developing a device to safely scare lions away, protecting both the predators and the people. He wouldn't have made his speech unless someone helped him craft it. What he was doing was something interesting, and he needed help to showcase his work.

That’s a similar philosophy that I go with. Everyone has something interesting to share, and our job as a curator should only be to make sure it’s put out in the best way possible. For an audience member who’s attending a TED event for the first time, I don’t think they care about how we do it so long as they understand, value, and relate to the talk.

Relatability for the audience is the most important thing, and so is understanding that everyone has an interesting idea to share. I think the current 2025 speaker curation team has done a very good job carrying this forward.

What does a typical 'crunch week' before the event actually look like for you?

A crunch week involves a lot of staying back at the auditorium, sitting at the dressing rooms, looking at people preparing people. Having very poor IT skills, trying to figure out how it works. Luckily, I’m someone who knows his IT very well... to the point that now it’s becoming unsustainable because I’m not sure for how long I would stay.

There’s a lot of theme interpretation recordings. For me, re-human (this year’s theme) means one thing, but it means something else for you. So we record a lot of our people – speakers, partners, members – giving their different takes on the theme.

Meanwhile, Ops, partnerships, and registration teams visualize the whole auditorium area multiple times to see: is the whole booth situation coming in properly? Are the lines coming in properly? What about the food and everything? We have maps, but we always come to the venue to get a better idea of what’s going to be there.

Then there’s the curation team and the communications team with their emcees. They speak, and train as well. Then there’s performances, usually from the Cultural Activities Club (CAC).

We also see a lot of shouting. I’ve been through this so many times. You see closer to the event, people either burn out, which is okay, since they’re trying their very best, but it’s not working out yet; and then there are people who don’t want to do it anyways. You see them and you’re like, 'Why did you sign up in the first place?' Yeah, that’s crunch week for us.

What's the hardest part of this role that people outside TEDxNTU would never guess?

I think I’ve burned quite a few bridges. But that also means that I’ve made quite some new ones.

Balancing everything has definitely been one of the biggest challenges. TEDxNTU demands a lot of time and commitment and managing that alongside my PhD hasn’t been easy. I’ve had to make some sacrifices in terms of personal time and social life, but it’s also been an incredibly rewarding experience.

Letting go has also proven to be difficult; I know I must let go of being involved in TEDxNTU, but I’m just not revisiting that fact. Still, this is not my first role, so I’ve learned to accept being responsible for things and gradually leaving it.

Looking at the committee now versus five years ago, what are you most proud of building or changing?

I’m very happy to have helped bring in a chairwoman for next year. I think it’s going to be the first woman led committee for TEDxNTU – so that’s something that I’m genuinely proud of, and she’s very capable. 

I think I’ve left the team in better shape since I joined. They're much stronger, much more experienced, and a much more dedicated team. Volunteering is a nice and kind act, but to pull off an event of this scale, you actually need long-term dedication. Having a role is perhaps one of the ways to keep people engaged in the whole event, so I created more roles for the committee members. I fought a lot for it. Looking back, it was a fun time, but at that point, it was very stressful.

The only thing I’m not proud of is struggling to find a replacement for the IT skills. I still haven’t found a match yet.

What do you hope someone who joins the TEDxNTU team today will experience or learn?

If there’s something that you’ve signed up for – TEDxNTU or anything else – it’s your consent you give, so try giving in your 100 percent as much as possible. I believe that with sufficient conviction and dedication, you can manage that time. I don’t think it’s difficult.

Skills are something that can be learnt and taught. What we’re looking for are open minds who are open to suggestions, open to feedback, and dedicated to work. If you are overconfident on what you can deliver or overcalculate it, not showing up is going to affect us.

Learning about Abu’s experience was insightful and gave me a valuable takeaway. Prior to the interview, I had chosen to join TEDxNTU mainly to accompany my friend who was passionate about this event, and being fully dedicated to this team was not one of my top priorities. However, Abu’s words “it’s your consent you give, so try giving your 100 percent as much as possible” served as a timely wake-up call on my commitment to this team. Fortunately, as part of the Operations and Logistics team, which was mainly involved closer to the actual event, I had the opportunity to put in my best effort for TEDxNTU after this interview. For subsequent commitments, I will remember his words and give in my 100 percent for everything I sign up for.