For most events in Gaston Hall, organizers do everything they can to make sure there will not be any “disruptors” in the audience. At this year’s TEDx Georgetown, they will be on the stage.

In its seventh year, the 2017 TEDxGeorgetown conference’s theme, “Disruptors,” focuses on speakers who “courageously pivot from the status quo to drive change.” The Saturday night event, expected to draw hundreds of attendees to Gaston Hall, is hosted by the student group TEDxGeorgetown, which receives funding and support from the Georgetown University Lecture Fund.

The conference has historically drawn about 800 attendees annually, according to TEDxGeorgetown Director of Logistics Stephanie Lu (COL ’18). As of Wednesday night, 700 people have registered online, with more sign-ups expected in the coming days. Tickets to the event are free for Georgetown students.

Lauren Stricker (SFS ’18), TEDxGeorgetown co-chair, said the current forward-looking social climate served as inspiration for this year’s conference theme.

“We decided that this is definitely a time of change and transformation in our society, and so we really liked the idea of people who were kind of challenging accepted norms and challenging accepted ways of going about different things,” she said.

American Sign Language interpreters will translate all the speakers’ speeches, according to Lu.

While past conferences focused on speakers from outside the Georgetown community, TEDxGeorgetown has included more student speakers in recent years, according to Stricker. About 10 percent of students who applied to be student speakers were selected, according to TEDxGeorgetown Director of Speakers Shifa’a Alsairafi (SFS ’18).

Stricker said the diversity of stories is a key factor in choosing which speakers to feature.

“TEDxGeorgetown sought out speakers with powerful stories understanding that the most impactful speakers can expose others to different ways of thinking even if their experiences are different from those of most students at Georgetown,” she said.

Alsairafi said personal narrative is also an important element in the consideration process.

“We look for stories. We look for personal stories that have a personal impact,” Alsairafi said.

Student speakers include Mélisande Short-Colomb (COL ’21), a student and 63-year-old descendant of the 272 slaves the university sold in 1838, and Matthew Wang (MSB ’18), a student entrepreneur who co-founded Spud Buds, a french fries company open at the university’s farmers market. Five students total will speak at the event.

Stricker said these students offer stories worth hearing.

“I have been so blown away by the people that I go to school with who are able to come forward and tell these stories,” Stricker said.

The four non-student speakers include Ahmad Ashkar, founder of Falafel Inc., a restaurant in the Georgetown neighborhood that donates part of its proceeds to fighting global hunger, and Jeff Galvin, founder and CEO of genetic technology research firm American Gene Technologies.

TEDxGeorgetown has also expanded lunch options for this year’s conference with more vendors at its lunchtime market, “TasTED.”

Alsairafi said, for her, the most important facet of the conference is the student speeches.

“One of the most rewarding aspects, for me, in doing this is being able to hear the stories of my peers at Georgetown. It really makes me appreciate how incredible and diverse our student body is,” Alsairafi said.