After months of planning its event, last week Palo Alto High School’s TEDx club pulled off a wildly successful independently formed TEDx conference in the Haymarket Theater.

“I could not be happier with the way that it went,” said senior Jonathan Mackris, the event’s Master of Ceremonies. “It was everything we wanted it to be and more. I was very proud.”

The event on February 24th featured 16 speakers who addressed subjects including technology, sports and literature.

“I found it really interesting because a lot of the subjects are things you wouldn’t really learn in class,” Mackris said. “It was very engaging to listen to topics like that.”

The conference also featured three student speakers during 6th period, including sophomore Sylvia Targ who spoke about biracial identity.

“My favorite part by far was getting laughs out of the audience,” Targ said. “We had a really great audience and they made me feel confident in myself. I had a lot of people tell me afterwards that they could really relate to what I was saying.”

Paly’s TEDx club began planning the event in September, and is already in the brainstorming phase for hosting a similar conference next year, according to the club’s assistant curator, junior Fabian Garduño.

“We will definitely be hosting one next year if everything goes as planned,” Garduño said. “We really want to try extending the event to go after school as well.”

Garduño encourages students interested in helping with the organization of future TEDx events to join the club, which meets Wednesdays at lunch.

“We’d really like something out of the ordinary,” Garduño said, referring to next year’s event. “I think it’s important to continue because lots of various institutions recognize it as an important event. The fact that Paly hosted one makes us pretty special.”