Bringing closure to the year, and your talk.
As we close out 2012, I have produced another ‘best clips’ video (you may remember the first one on opening hooks), this time, on great closings. As a speechwriter friend of mine told me once, the hardest part for her clients was “Getting into and getting out of the talk.” So here’s some inspiration to bring your great ideas to a close.
How to close a great talk. from Articulation on Vimeo.
No CommentsLive from San Diego
Dr. Kaweh Mansouri at rehearsal for TEDxSanDiego, practicing to show his contact lens that will detect glaucoma.
Last weekend I assisted with prepping some of the speakers for TEDxSanDiego, a wonderful TEDx run by Jack Abbott, a longtime marketing executive in the area. Jack invited me to work with four specific speakers in preparing their talks and then to the rehearsal to help gently guide any other speakers in need of help.
I got handed the four speakers who were dealing in “chips.” Technologies that are almost science fiction-like, but are being tested and refined to go to market in the very near future. They included:
– Thought Controlled Computing: Using a headband that reads your brainwaves and then allows you to control various devices (and or/other behaviors) just by thinking.
– Single blood test for all cancers: That’s right, one drop of blood they hope will screen for all cancers.
– Contact lenses to detect glaucoma: To date, the only test for glaucoma is the “puff” test you get once a year. These new lenses send a wireless signal to capture the data around eye pressure, which is the indicator of glaucoma onset.
– Epidermal Electronic Tattoos: No more wires on preemies or on their mother’s belly before they are born. Monitoring and scanning patches that affix to your skin and that allow you to capture (again, wirelessly, see the trend?) data without being connected to any wires.
These scientists, Ariel Garten, Raj Krishan, Kaweh Mansouri and Todd Coleman didn’t know each other at all. But they all shared a few commonalities on how they were preparing for their big talks:
– They were armed with incredible data about their discoveries, but each had to work extra hard to incorporate stories to bring them to life.
– Each had to really carve out time to work on their talks — most of them ended up using weekends to write, edit and rehearse.
– Speaking of rehearsal, it was a make-or-break time for each of them. One had never used a confidence monitor before (the screen that sits in front of you that projects your slides) and so he spent most of his time looking backwards (yikes!); two of them had technically challenging demonstrations that took a team of folks and extra effort to work out; and all of them greatly benefited from me recording them (just on my iPhone) and playing back the “tape” to see where improvements could be made.
I’m personally grateful for the opportunity that Jack and his awesome team at TEDxSanDiego gave me to work with these massively talented researchers. Nothing like a good dose of intense science, technology and sun to kick off the holiday season!
1 CommentThe Ruthies.
As the co-host and lead curator for TEDxColumbus, I’m supposed to act as an information waitress. I help select and then introduce the talks to people who are hungry for their curiosity to be fed. My job is to present the ideas (as authored by our speakers) without judgment so the audience can come to their own conclusions.
However, as a coach to nearly all of these presenters and speakers, I can’t help have a bias in not only what feats they overcame to make it to the TEDxColumbus stage, but what lessons they leave us beyond their stimulating, provocative and challenging ideas. So I’d like to introduce The Ruthies.
The Ruthies are my personal awards from my point of view on the style and delivery, sequence and organization, preparation and planning ‘wins’ that emerged from this year’s TEDxColumbus talks, as heard originally at COSI on October 5. And like pee wee soccer, everyone wins a trophy. Because everyone put an extraordinary effort into their talk and we see a unique attribute in each from which we all can learn. Here we go.
Best Opening Hook
Priyank Shah said he wanted to mention that his talk would not be a data centric talk, boring people with social science research. So I told him, “Why don’t you start with a riff and scare them a bit? When you stop and shift gears, they will be delighted and want to hear your talk. ” And here’s to Priyank, he pulled it off. You could have seen the sweat on people’s brows as they listened to his first sentences…
Most Uncomfortable Moment
Laura Hill provided us with one of the most “enlightenly uncomfortable” moments of the whole day: she played a recording of her take on what it sounds like in a person’s head who suffers from anorexia while they are eating. When I first heard it at rehearsal, I wanted to tell her it wouldn’t work – the sound quality was too poor and disturbing. But that was the whole point.
Best Nervous Laughs
How could there not be? He told everyone that we needed to have one puff of pot a day and that cocaine is really no different than lard. The rest of his talk, discussing how food and drug are really the same thing, was peppered with insightful entertaining moments that resonated with everyone in the audience. Dr. Gary Wenk would also get the most prepared award – I heard a final version of this talk 5 weeks before 10/5.
Best Graphics
Her own. Jessica Hagy, a soft-spoken and modest orator, blew many folks away with her powerful Venn diagrams for which she is famous.
Best Reflection
Brian Roche, when asked what he had learned in developing his TEDxColumbus talk, said, “I never equated MY research to moving THAT needle.” He was referring to the work of finding out why chemotherapy drugs were causing cardiac disease and failure in 15% of cancer patients who survived. He was able to pull himself out of the deep dive that is his research to understand the larger implications by giving his talk. He also may get the best effort award – I saw few others transform their data into a cohesive, easy to understand talk than Brian.
Best Audience Engagement Exercise
At the end of Catherine Evans’ talk, she invited everyone to take a photo and then challenged us what choices we’d make with that image. It was a very personal way to end the talk of the journey of photography.
Most Passionate
But of course, it goes to Dr. Gordon Aubrecht. Just see for yourself.
Most Memorable Ending
Goes to Frederick. He left one of the most captivating moments in his story until the very end. While everything he said leading up to it was mesmerizing, it was his act of forgiveness and consequently being free that hit a deep chord in the last lines of his time on stage.
Best Stories
Whether it was of himself shopping at Baby Gap, or the stories of Jonathan and Xavier, Terrell Strayhorn captivated us with the illustrative language that made his talk highly resonating.
Best Audition
Jan Allen won the spot on the TEDxColumbus stage as she beat out nearly 30 other open auditioners. Her journey from a three minute talk to a 10 minute talk was not an easy one; we applaud her for the endless hours that went into both her audition and delivering a well-crafted story.
Best Recovery
And yes, that is a double entendre. Dan Stover told a bold and beautiful story of courage and overcoming fear at the TEDxYouth@Columbus event which earned him the one youth spot on the TEDxColumbus stage. But that was after a fairly unimpressive attempt at the TEDx Open Call Auditions; I was FLOORED by the effort he had put into his Youth talk since then. It goes to show you that hard work can pay off. And you’ll see from his talk, he had more notable and heroic recoveries that than one. Great work, Dan.
Best Open Process
Naomi Stanford took crowd sourcing and syndication to a new level in preparing her talk. She first posted this blog, and then practiced her talk on three different continents during her travels as a consultant. Not everyone has these opportunities, but she used them to her advantage to richen her talk.
Best Editor
There was a reason that Pecha Kucha was started for architects. The forum that engages speakers for 20 seconds for 20 slides was meant to keep their talks brief. Enter Michael Bongourino, the gregarious, lovable architect who had a “front row seat” to the concept of overlooked spaces, as informed by his 14-year old (and continuing) escapades in and with unique places. At rehearsal, Michael met the 18-minute mark with half his talk to go. Gulp. In two days, he became his own best editor for refining and massaging what became a truly delightful tour of his perspective.
Best Closer
When we accepted Doug Smith to speak, I thought his talk would be largely about his personal experience facing his own mortality being diagnosed with leukemia. And while it was at the core, he beautifully turned his story into one that made the audience the central character instead. Everyone saw themselves in his story by the end of the 18 minutes. After being tossed and turned by every other idea throughout the day, the audience was brought back to center and what matters most about being happy, his core idea and one that everyone loved as the close.
Four years of TEDxColumbus, hard to believe!
About this time every year as we begin to promote TEDxColumbus, I still get the question: What is TED? So here’s a quick primer and a wee bit of background how I got involved (and why I still am!).
TED is a conference founded about 30 years ago. A guy wanted to have interesting people to dinner to share their cool ideas — but he knew they wouldn’t come. So he created the TED conference instead. It stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design, but since its founding, has moved far beyond just those three subjects.
The conference is a very simple construct: All speakers and performers are heard by everyone in the audience (no breakouts or choices). And anyone who takes the stage has 18 minutes or less to reveal their insight into a particular idea, innovation, discovery or trend. After a day of live talks, its a bit of a mind-warp. Or some say its a brain spa. Others call it college. Some just love it for the creative escape to hear passionate stories from people who have amazing points of view, deep mastery in their respective fields and the ability to connect with a diverse, curious audience.
In about 2006, they took the videos from the first 20 years of the conference and started posting them to a website – www.ted.com. That’s when most people started learning about them since the conferences (TED in California is the mothership, TEDGlobal is its sister conference in Edinburgh) themselves are expensive and fairly difficult to gain admittance.
Then in winter of 2009, they created the TEDx program (x = independently organized event). The day after they posted the notice for TEDx on the blog was when I saw it — as I often say, on one stormy cold February night while watching a TED talk with Dave, my husband. He fell asleep and I kept reading…and when I saw the post…I dreamed all night about how we could bring it to Columbus. I applied to be the licensee and then with the help of my awesome co-curator and collaborator Nancy Kramer, we brought it to the Wexner Center in October, 2009: Columbus: Global.
And again in 2010 at CCAD on 10-21-10: What’s Next?
And last year at COSI on 11-11-11: A Moment in Time.
This is the first year we will repeat a venue – at COSI on October 5 for The Future Revealed. (This year we’re also a part of idUS week, Columbus’ bicentennial celebration to innovation, design and creativity.)
Why I’m still involved? As a laboratory for my work in public speaking, presentation skills, storytelling and effective message delivery – I am blessed to have the experience year after year to work with extraordinary talent who each need to build “the talk of their lives.” As a service to my community, I am passion about elevating our conversation. While it is important for us all to know how to read at one end — I have higher aspirations for us to know how to debate, stay curious, erase bias, be challenged.
Each year I’m at the center of helping to choose who will take the stage – researchers, thinkers, writers, trend watchers, innovators, poets, musicians and more. I love the challenge of finding the right mix of talent that’s all from our back yard. There’s nothing more satisfying than knowing that we moved an audience of 750 (or double, with our livestream) with mainly people that left their house that morning and were at COSI within 30 minutes. All of our speakers are from Columbus or have a very close tie to us. No speaker is paid and no speaker pays to talk. It’s what makes it all work.
I’m now a part of a global community – there are over 800 organizers like myself in 130 or so countries who have staged over 2500 events — and fed over 12,000 talks (see www.tedxtalks.ted.com). I figured we were the 35 city to have an event, and I reckon Nancy and I part of a handful of organizers who have maintained their original license.
Likewise, there’s now an active TEDxColumbus community. The first year all I did was explain what TED was. Now I field questions about speaker nominations, organizations wanting to partner – and many – want to do their own TEDx inside for their associates. I’m grateful to the hundreds of people who are somehow involved in making each year’s event and effort worthwhile. Especially to the speakers who devote more hours than you can imagine.
I often tell the story that TEDx answered the question for me: What is my Kit Kat? Kit Kat was the intellectually charged club my father belonged to for twenty years. They gathered once a month to share papers on topics unrelated to their professions (mainly). I got to go once a year as his date to the annual event. I was jealous that he had such an outlet but as a woman, I would never have a chance to join. (For the record: he did vote to admit women when the topic was debated, but it was defeated. I never held it against him for continuing his membership as I deeply appreciated his insatiable desire to learn and be challenged).
After the first year, I saw the speakers on stage and realized that helping people find their voice was a true delight of mine. I watched each of their preparation pathways and knew how some could do better, and what others did to succeed. It was, in essence, what gave me inspiration to focus my PR practice and start ar.tic.u.la.tion.
My dear dad passed away in his sleep the night I returned from the TEDActive conference (in Palm Springs) on March 3rd of this year. He came to our event in 2010 and watched the livestream in 2011. (I don’t think I told him about our first year until it was over – I wasn’t sure how it was going to go!) During this week, the six month anniversary of his passing, I’m planning to bring his spirit with me to the stage again when I help host the 4th annual TEDxColumbus on October 5.
Thanks, Dad, for inspiration you have brought to me. And hopefully in turn, to thousands of others. Your legacy of learning, discovery and curiosity continues.
No Comments
The arc, or rather petals, of a TED talk
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 of what’s under the hood of a TED talk. As in, what does the engine look like?
I have blogged here and many expert TED staff have explained what a TED talk should do or say. Do inspire, explain and challenge. Don’t sell or preach.
But since I get asked weekly how do you shape a TED talk or how do you coach a TEDx speaker, it is time to propose a TED story shape.
Nancy Duarte expertly has analyzed the “visionary” story structure, sort of a sideways staircase. But TED talks are more explanatory, sharing discoveries and research or interpreting trends and design. I and others share our appreciation for Duarte’s insight but I argue it’s not applicable here.
So here’s a draft of the TED flower.
Metaphorically, it shares a few key characteristics with a TED talk:
The stem of the flower is singular and rooted in the ground, like a solid governing idea that every TED talk embraces.
The heart of the flower is generally a circle, that begins and ends with the stem, or the governing idea. The outline of that circle carries the idea through every point, example and transition in the talk.
The petals on the flower can be many or few (fewer is better but I don’t want to be any more prescriptive). I see the heart and petals segmented into four quadrants: the opening and idea statement, the context and so what?, the proposition of the answer or key supporting points- illuminated with visual transport stories, and a call to action and conclusion. The petals are interspersed with transitions and pathways, that help the audience to follow the story from one side of the stem to the other.
The scents that come from the flower are only achieved through emotive stories. From there, we end up with the good, bad, strong, sweet, sour and other smells or feelings that then cause us to ignore, applaud, repeat, or resonate with the idea. I may go so far to suggest audience members use the scents to determine if the idea is worthy of planting that idea in their own “action” garden of beliefs and causes.
A live flower unto itself does not last forever and neither does a live TED talk. But the pollen, seeds, images and remembrances of scents last well beyond it’s life.
I’ll stop there with the edging-on-cheesy metaphors and simple reinforce my proposal that the stem, heart and petals of a flower make up a shape synonymous with a TED (or TEDx) talk. See my first sketch below.
1 Comment
How not to give a TED talk
(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 into the land of the forgotten.
June, Bruno and Chris have been quoted and recorded ad nauseum on what TO DO in a TED talk. But reflecting on my probably unnecessarily critical analysis and other shocking reactions I’ve had to previous speakers during the week, I present to you my list of things not to do in a talk at TED.
1. Do not start with a sentence that includes the word “talk” as in “In my talk today…” People, we know you are here to give a talk so get to it.
2. Do not read. I loved Mr. Toy Story’s talk but weeped that the best storyteller had to read it. It also presents more challenging situations like when you try to remember a word not on the script and it simply doesn’t come to you. Eeek.
3. If you want people not to follow your talk, wander aimlesslessly from a string of unrelated facts. Your audience will be given license to bust out the blackberries even though they are forboden.
4. Do not forget to tell stories. Remember this simple equation. If it doesn’t take you to a time & place with characters, it is not a story. It will not take you to a visual place where you can then evoke an emotion. And emotion is the #1 way people will remember your talk. Kudos to Brian Stevenson for nailing this.
5. Do not have a conversation with yourself. A couple speakers forgot there was an audience. One way to overcome this is to make the audience the central character of your story. If you don’t get this, you shouldn’t give any talk at all.
No CommentsThis one, for the kids
February 26, 2012: I had the honor of giving a presentation to 250 TEDx organizers from 41 countries on our experience helping with the elementary school program, TEDxKids@NBCC. I think in this shot I was making the point that my son gave his TEDx talk in 52 seconds in his socks. (and did I really put my hand in my pocket!?) Taken at the Living Desert Museum.
TEDxKids@NBCC: Our Curriculum (help yourself!)
Using a word like curriculum sounds rather formal, as we really intend for this to be a guide to inspire and adapt for your own TEDx kids/youth situation. This is a six week model with the sixth “class” being the TEDxKids event itself.
We recommend keeping your student logistics to a minimum. Don’t try to be a hero and collect a perfectly balanced group of kids from every school, neighborhood, etc. Work with a group or a teacher with whom you have a relationship and give those kids an experience of a lifetime.
Please use the links to read the more complete description for each week.
Week 1: Narrative Storytelling
Objective: Show how a traditional story is structured. Get kids up and talking.
Exercise: part 1- read a classic fairy tale; part 2- have the students redesign parts of the story and immediately share their new versions
out loud to the class. Can work in small groups of 2-3.
Week 2: Illustrative Language
Objective: Show how a story comes alive with vibrant descriptors. Get kids in front of class talking.
Exercise: Introduce with plain photo / fancy photo of an object and discuss what each “feels” like; then invite kids one at a time to narrate a TED talk (where sound is muted)
At home activity: work on a story with descriptions of a piece of imagery provided to each student.
Week 3: Idea Generation
Objective: report out on homework from week 2; introduce how they can begin their ideation for the topic of their talk.
Exercise: Ask them to volunteer things they are passionate about, challenge them to be meaningful. Pass out story board of suggestions and discus what else may be included.
Week 4: Public Speaking Basics
Objective: introduce the dos and don’ts of public speaking
Exercise: have kids introduce themselves from the stage or venue they’ll be using for the TEDxKids event. Share the storyboard of verbal and nonverbal basics.
Then have them share the idea (in a circle, not on stage yet) they are considering for their talks. Encourage them to articulate a problem and solution, not just a topic.
Week 5: Talk it out, Introduce visuals
Objective: start them to feel the deadline of having their talk ready, advance the call to action in their talk and any visuals.
Exercise: have them stand up and tell the class their talk jn it’s current form (it will be rough to non-existent). Have them pick the order of their talks. Demonstrate how they may use a picture or other image to reinforce a point. (we didn’t do this well beyond telling them- I encourage a better approach)
Week 6: Practice, Rehearse and Deliver!!!
My 18 minutes on “TEDx”
At TEDActive 2012 in Palm Beach in a few days (the sister simulcast of TED in Long Beach) I’ll be presenting on our TEDxKids@NBCC experience to the TEDx workshop. It reminded me of my last national TEDx presentation in Roanoke, Virginia late last year to the CityWorks Xpo conference and that it was finally time to ‘out’ it! I was referred by the TED staff to the conference organizers discuss why (or why not) your city should embrace a TEDx event. (spoiler alert: I didn’t give a very direct answer!)
1 Comment
TEDxKids@NBCC Journal Entry 1: Teaching kids about story.
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, respectively. They are now 7.5 and 5.5 yrs young in 2nd grade and Kindergarten.
After producing three full-blown TEDxColumbus events featuring 40 speakers and performers to over 1200 people (collectively) my daughter (the 7.5 year old) said to me in passing one day, why can’t I do a TEDx event? And there was only one response: why not? Why not. Did I really say that?
So today we gathered at about 12 children in a classroom at NBCC, my two kids and about 10 others with a few kids from each grade – K through 4. The youngest is my son at age 5.5, and the oldest is 9. We expect there to be a flux of the attendance since we are holding these five classes at 4:30pm on a Friday, but it’s also a time when we know there’s no homework to be done! At some point the lack of attendance will eliminate them from participating in the event on 2/17, but we’ll address that later.
Full disclaimer about now – my TEDx colleague in Edinburgh, Ewan McIntosh, is responsible for inspiring this approach on which I’ll be reporting – and some of the curriculum pieces. He produced one of the first TEDxKids events at Sunderland (TEDxKids@Sunderland) with about the same aged kids. Since I’ve never taught a kid a thing in my life except to my own – and that’s questionable on most days – I’m grateful for his general direction. I’m hoping these posts and documentation will aid others in wanting to execute their own Kids events. Remember, my expertise is in adult learning and at that, centered on the process of being an effective public speaker and how to architect a story for business settings. I’m banking on it translating to those four, five or six decades younger.
Today’s subject: What makes a story.
After spending about 90 seconds trying to explain what TED was to the group and how in six weeks they will stand up and deliver a very short – as in 1-2 minute talk – I broke out a classic fairy tale. There was no easy explanation of TED for these kids and showing them any sort of TED talk would have scared the shit out of them. In fact, the mere mention of this sentence “You will stand up in front…” started to give one 4th grader anxiety (why SO young? more on that later). So off we went into the Brothers Grimm version of Little Red Riding Hood.
Cat, the teacher who is my cohort to make sure the kids don’t all rebel against me in this 30 minute session, later told me she thought that was really a PG-13 version of Little Red. Indeed, most had only heard the G version but it served me well.
Two of my older boys (4th grade) were not pleased about having been signed up to participate. Sitting in the back, they exhibited some “we’re too cool” to be here attitude. Until I said that the wolf ate Red Riding Hood and her Grandmother. And the Hunter later saved them. The mythic journey was real. Now, for some of the more sensitive kids, this might have not been the best choice of versions – but the story works great for the following learning outcomes:
– Demonstrating that the book was passed down by word of mouth for hundreds of years before it was written. Explaining that’s how stories really get passed around.
– Clear delineations to explain the introduction of the characters, setting, events and conclusion. (Or in my terms – the complication, question, answer). Also, it took a few moments for them to know that the wolf was the villain but once they did, BAM, those boys were hooked! And loving to figure out that the hunter was the hero.
Here is the video from that portion, judge for yourself if it worked:
After we read it and discussed those main elements (15 minutes), I broke the class into four sections (3 kids each). And I passed out this form (see it here) that listed four categories of the story: character, setting, events and conclusion. Each section was assigned a category (I highlighted a different category for each section) and asked to change it in the story. Think big. Think tall. Think aliens, wormholes, noses and chocolate chip candy canes. The learning objective was to demonstrate how easily a story can change, reinforce the elements of a story, get them to think those things (ie create) and then to actually talk – using their own ideas and thoughts. And I’d say, it worked! Here are the videos after about 4 minutes of brainstorm (after a few minutes of explanation). Again, see for yourself.
I didn’t introduce any “event” planning elements today. I’m still unsure how to handle the distribution of labor except that I think a sub-group of the class will be interested and I’ll meet with them separately. Here’s my working list for a TEDxKids event – with a breakdown of what the kids should do without adults and where they need adult help. Please check a later post if you want to see if it got refined which is pretty assured. Likewise with the schedule of classes:
Friday, January 13 Storytelling frameworks through traditional fiction
Friday, January 20 Illustrative Language (how to describe things)
Friday, January 27 Idea Generation around a passion and community need
Friday, February 3 Public Speaking Basics
Friday, February 10 Visuals and demonstrations to support key points / Rehearsal of ideas
I’ll post a summary of each week. At the end, we’ll recap the curriculum into something a bit fancier.
No Comments