TEDxUNC will need at least 504 people to do sit-ups at the same time for at least one minute to break a Guinness World Record.
Co-curator Olivia Nicolaus said she and the two other co-curators thought of the idea when they were thinking about what to do for the breakout session, an extended intermission between speakers with activities to engage with the ideas of the conference. The TEDxUNC theme this year is "Bodies: Being Human."
“It has some elements of health and medicine, but it is also a very holistic view of the body, a sort of view of the human body from many dimensions and many perspectives,” she said.
Nicolaus said she was also inspired by participating in breaking the most number of people spooning record three years ago, which was organized by a UNC student.
“It was really fun because you went and you were a part of something that felt kind of big,” Nicolaus said.
Breaking a world record felt like an attainable goal because of the number of participants at the conference, co-curator Ashita Gona said.
“Because the audience is usually full of curious and excited people, we have a really good feeling they will go out there and do it,” Gona said.
Nicolaus said they chose sit-ups instead of other records because of certain limits for the event.
“This is the one we thought was most doable with the space and the capacity, with the number of people and the constraints that we have for the event. The physical element linked back to the body in some ways. It is kind of nice to get people moving and doing something,” Nicolaus said.
