It’s my turn for the stage
This week I’ll be speaking at the Cityworks (X)po in Roanoke, Virginia. I was invited to speak on behalf of the TEDx global community, which now equates to 3417 events in 117 countries. Humbled, yes. Nervous, no. Since this is my “TEDx” season, the content is omnipresent in the brain, especially thanks to a great hour-long talk show with our leading local radio host.
For those of you curious about my preparation runway for a major talk, here are my 5 steps. These aren’t for everyone, but they work for me.
- Research on everything. Audience, venue, potential facts to include, reading trends, other related videos. Then let simmer.
- Work on governing idea – what’s the one thing I’ll leave them with? Develop no more than 3 key buckets of support. Brainstorm stories to resonate the buckets.
- Talk it through on my voice memos app. Transcribe it. Reverse engineer the outline to revise number two.
- Talk it through again, and make a list of visual imagery I need to resonate the stories. Research, download, buy or borrow visuals.
- Practice, syndicate and practice again. Make a note card with outline as backup.
Three times makes it a trend
They say once is an event, twice is a coincidence and three times is a trend.
As we organize the third TEDxColumbus event, we’re definitely feeling the trend. Consider our first year when no one knew what TED or TEDx was. I had to explain, clarify, demonstrate and explain some more. Last year, we had some awareness but still needed to prove we could do it again. And this year, we’re now managing people’s interest, excitement, investments and involvement.
But more importantly, we’re helping with three other events that are by-products of this trend.
Next week, a statewide STEM conference will take place where their three “keynote” speakers will deliver 18- minute TED-like talks.
The following week, I’m giving a talk at CityWorksXpo, a national conference on small cities. The organizers wanted to share the essence of TEDx with the cities that had not yet embraced one. While TED doesn’t like to promote TEDx in the traditional way, I’m happy to provide some front-row insight and outcomes to what a TEDx might inspire within a city.
The next week, a major company in town is having a day-long marketing summit with their 200 internal marketing professionals and 12 ad agencies. Instead of having the agencies present creative work, they turned to me to curate (that means concept, recruit, select and coach) a morning slate of TED-like speakers centered around a compelling, futuristic idea that will ‘wake up’ their brains to where their industry is headed.
And then lastly, our main event on 11.11. We announced the speakers this week and are humbled and honored to be working with such a dedicated, passionate group. We’re expecting 500-600 to attend a full day “Moment in Time” featuring 18 speakers. That’s definitely a few steps away from our 5-hour, 8-speaker evening event the first year with just 300 in attendance.
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