Yesterday morning I delivered a keynote address on influential storytelling to 80 executives at the company DSW, headquartered in Columbus. They sell shoes and lots of them. In attempting to find the perfect metaphor to begin my talk, I made them each take off their right shoes. To a group of shoe execs, the energy […]
It takes both sides. Read More »
Last week, we suggested an outrageous idea to a client who was addicted to PowerPoint (as in she had sent at least 200 pages of slides in 4 decks). While we were helping her to narrow down a presentation to 15 slides, we also suggested they use a black slide when one of the 5
Dare to fade to black Read More »
Last week we re-launched our Influential Storytelling class. Like all good motors, it needed a tune up, and just in time too. These 15 participants came together from 7 different organizations to get down to the business of “story.” One of the attendees in his evaluation said: “It is rare that one experiences something
Our Influential Storytelling Class Read More »
My favorite quote from the TED Conference this year was from the (now former) head of DARPA, the defense agency that plans our strategic responses on surprise attacks, Regina Dugan. She said: “If you want to learn to fly, you have to FLY.” It seemed so simple. But for an agency that fails all the time in its
Every car has four wheels, a radiator and glove compartment. It is not those things that make a car fancy, fast or memorable. But without those things it would not be a car. After attending my second TED conference and beginning to preparing our 5th TEDx event, I thought it was time to take a stab at my interpretation
The arc, or rather petals of a TED talk Read More »
(Live from TEDActive 2012) I was asked to play Bob Costas, or rather Mary Corillo, by a fellow TEDactive attendee during session 8 at TED2012. In other words, sit next to me and give me a play by play of what these speakers are doing to rock the house or in contrast, find a way
How not to give a TED talk Read More »
This week we were welcomed into the capacity building workshop for the 12 grant partners of the Women’s Fund of Central Ohio. We fashioned an abbreviated version of a critical thinking workshop, helping them to focus on their high-value ideas and resonating stories. We were thrilled to be there as these partners had amazing passion
Women’s Fund Workshop: High Value Ideas and Overflowing Passion Read More »
While we have been involved in hundreds of keynote addresses over the years, I thought it was time to document the pathway of one from start to finish. Each is different of course based on the speaker, event and audience. We adapt for each and in this case, we’re working with the founder of a
The Keynote: One Pathway Read More »
Today I began a six week journey with about 15 elementary school children toward a final destination of a TEDxKids event. Yes, I’ll take your luck as I’ll likely need it. “NBCC” is North Broadway Children’s Center where my two children have attended pre-school and now aftercare since they were 18 months and 10 weeks,
TEDxKids@NBCC Journal Entry 1: Teaching kids about story. Read More »
On the TEDxColumbus stage over the last three years, we’ve had a variety of performance artists: musicians, poets and such. This post is not about them. It is about those individuals who have a medium other than their own voice, movement or acting to express their artistry (design, painting). I turned to wikipedia for a
Speaking when your medium isn’t language. Read More »
