In a late-night Instagram post, TEDxWake announced that it is canceling its in-person event, which was scheduled for Jan. 22. 

Originally, concerns about inclement winter weather expected for this weekend caused TEDxWake organizers to move the event to an online modality. However, that decision lasted only a few hours.

In the Instagram post, the TedX team wrote: “Thank you for all the love this year. To honor our speakers, we will be fully canceling this year’s event and inviting the speakers back next year in hopes of giving them a full experience.”

The post continued: “Devastated does not begin to describe what the team is feeling, but we can’t wait to put on a bigger and better conference next year. We would like to give a huge shoutout to our seniors, who were our rocks and biggest inspirations, you will be so incredible missed. You’ll hear from us soon enough!”

The theme of the event, “wavemakers”, coincidentally was supposed to focus around the positive power of disruption. 

Allie Haggerty, president of TEDxWake, shared her views on the intended theme with the Old Gold & Black for the original article that was to be published previewing the Jan. 22 event.

“When something that life-changing happens, there’s lessons to learn and people to touch through those lessons,” Haggerty said.

If the lineup of speakers remains the same, attendees at the 2023 conference can expect to hear from Peabody Award winners, Wake Forest professors, business executives and more.

More information about the cancellation can be found on the TEDxWake Instagram page, @tedxwakeforestu, or on its website www.tedexwake.com