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Rawan Al-Wazzan

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What guidelines would you give someone preparing a TEDx talk?

TED Community, I’ve attended a number of independently organized TEDx events and seen plenty on YouTube and was disappointed to find out that some talks presented weren’t TED material. They lacked the ‘idea worth spreading’ element. What would you suggest to a speaker who’s preparing to deliver a TEDx talk in order for them to make sure their talk is up to standards?

Topics: TEDx Talks ideas worth spreading
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Closing Statement from Rawan Al-Wazzan

Don't you just love the TED Community?!

Some great feedback. Thank you Fritzie Reisner, Deborah Zotian, Kashaf Mamoon, Edward Long, Shariq Hashme, Tofig Ahmed, Abhinandan Chatterjee, Johnson Tam-Lit, Philip Kanoutos, Jenoye Cole, Lucas Avelleda, Asha de Vos, JenniferAnne McCool, Carlos Miranda Levy, Bharath Kumar Kunjibettu, Lesley Rickard, Edmond Hui, and Tosca Killoran. :)

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    Deborah Zotian

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    Apr 11 2012: My guideline when I prepare a talk (not a TED talk, unfortunately, but for business) is to write it up fully, do the PowerPoint presentation as though I had unlimited time. Then I edit like crazy. The first cut will be at leaset 50% of what I prepared, because it is repetitive or irrelevant to the topic. The second cut will be to tighten up what is remaining - Can certain things be combined? Are there too many ideas presented which could confuse the audience? There may be as many as 6 cuts before I get the final presentation. Something that would have taken an hour or more to start will end up being 10-15 minutes, and will contain the core of the idea.

    I try to instill this in my staff as well. I don't need the history of the world - just the facts.
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      Rawan Al-Wazzan

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      TED Translator
      Apr 18 2012: The steps you are taking to prepare your speech -in whatever medium it is in- are great to omit redundancy and assist you in refining the idea of your talk. The problem which I think we face in some TEDx events is the weakness of some of the ideas. They could either be irrelevant to the audience or 'over-used' and verging on being cliche. Therefore, boring the audience and killing any chance of interaction between them and the speaker.

      So my question to you now is, how do you choose the 'idea' that's worth spreading?
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        Deborah Zotian

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        Apr 18 2012: For my presentations, I don't have to worry about choosing the topic. I've been 'assigned' the topic by my client. I train on software so I know exactly what topic I have to prepare.

        As I've not been to a TED or TEDx event, isn't there normally a list of suggested topics or areas for the presenters to select? Or at least some guidelines of some kind for those selecting who will be speaking based on the presenters' suggestions?

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