TEDx was held in Jinan,Shandong province for the first time on Thursday. [Photo by Zhao Ruixue/chinadaily.com.cn]

TEDx, an independently organized event of the annual TED showcase of creative ideas, was held for the first time in Jinan, capital of East China's Shandong province on Thursday with nearly 100 people attending.

TEDxJinan, which was held at the Sanjian branch of Jinan Foreign Language School, ran for 3 hours and featured 8 speakers from both home and abroad.

The theme for this year's TEDxJinan is "Youth", a topic that is "closely related to the audience who are mostly senior high school students", according to Zhang Chenyang, initiator of TEDxJinan.

Focusing on the topic of youth, speakers shared their stories in the fields of media, law and education.

"The stories of these speakers expanded my horizons and inspired me to think over my life," said Qin Wenna, a sophomore of Jinan Foreign Language School.

Zhang, a 15-year-old freshman of JNFLS, said she and her team will work on continuing this event next year.

TEDx talks, an initiative by the US-based organization TED, are independently run to help share ideas in communities around the world.

In China, there are around 120 TEDx events held every year.

TED is a nonprofit organization with the slogan "ideas worth sharing". When first established in 1984, TED touched on the topics of Technology, Entertainment and Design and today topics have been expanded to cover almost all fields, ranging from science to business, health and global issues.