02/04/2026
Even One Year Later, Vivien Luk’s TEDx Talk Is a Reminder to Tune In This Year. Check out the story below to learn about what Luk's doing now before you meet our new speakers.
The clock was ticking, thirty seconds until Vivien Luk would be walking onto the stage after months of preparation.
One thought ran through her head.
“Don’t black out,” Luk said.
The lights were bright, the room went silent, and the TEDx Pittsburgh crowd was ready to hear Luk’s story.
Waste, labor and people, things the average person rarely sees, are outstanding issues that Luk’s work impacts every day.
“I just wanted to make sure that I did a good job,” she said. “The story matters to me and matters to everyone that I work with, and so I wanted to make sure that I represented it well.”
A year later, after the sound of the crowd's applause drowned out the impact of that night still lingers.
When she initially delivered her TEDx talk, she wasn’t trying to present one solution to the global waste crisis. Instead, she wanted to shed light on this issue and invite people into starting a conversation. A conversation that starts far from the recycling bins, but much closer to the people whose labor continues to be an essential part of the waste system.
That intention became the backbone of her talk. With the support of the TEDx team, she spent months shaping the narrative, making deliberate choices on how to create a story that would leave the audience with new information and a new perspective.
“The team there was so supportive over the course of a few months of preparation,” she said. “They wanted to make sure that we were supported along the way and that we had great story arcs.”
That process required difficult choices about what to include and what to leave out.
“There’s so much work that we are doing now,” she said. “But I think all of that would get a little bit lost in a shorter talk.”
Instead, Luk centered the talk on storytelling, drawing from experiences she had witnessed firsthand. Her talk featured specific informal waste workers that Luk’s company has directly supported.
“I wanted to share a talk that helped everyone enter the space and enter this topic,” she said.
One year later, she says she would not significantly change the talk and, given the chance to hit the TEDx stage again.
“I think I would keep my story,” she said.
The TEDx experience stood out to Luk for the space created to reflect.
“I don’t get a lot of time like that to reflect at that scale,” she said. “To have an audience to tell your story to. It felt like such a gift.”
For future TEDx speakers, Luk’s advice is simple.
“I would say to take advantage of every piece of support you offered,” she said. “It is a team that really just wants to see you do well.”
For Luk, TEDx was more than just a speech; it was a time to reflect and talk about an ongoing issue that deserves to be heard.
Who will be next on our stage?
Check out Vivien's full talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NLS4gRwBgE
