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Seigi Karasaki

Organizer @ TEDxTodai, TEDxTodai

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A well-balanced TEDx speaker line-up consists of..

Hi! First post here. I'm the tentative co-organizer for TEDxUTokyo (Tokyo Uni) for 2013. I say tentative b/c we have not yet renewed our licence. Nice to meet you all.

Our team is currently in the midst of brainstorming a list of speakers for the upcoming event (crossing our fingers for May). The consensus we've reached is that though we would ideally like to have the majority of our speakers be 1) directly affiliated with UTokyo and 2) students/young speakers who have not yet had a chance to voice their ideas, we realize that there is also a lot of value in inviting established, well-known speakers as well.

Before we split off for the winter holidays (90% of the members are current students), it was brought up that it would be helpful to have a guideline to use in individual brain-storming sessions over break. Since TED(x) stresses a balanced line-up of speakers from a variety of different backgrounds, the proposed guideline would provide initial categories (e.g. hard sciences, humanities, social justice, education, etc.) of speakers and topics. Any thoughts? We would greatly appreciate any feedback and/or suggestions you all may have regarding this idea.

This is all very, very exciting. Thanks for taking the time to read this rather lengthy question.

Cheers!

Seigi Karasaki
TEDxUTokyo

Topics: TED speakers choosing speakers tedx
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    J Chang

    • +1
    Dec 18 2012: First off, congrats on your willingness to provide innovative and thought provoking venues to your community, rock on! Although I am not an offical TEDx organizer, I have a TEDx like group that I host a monthly event that features distinguished speakers of various specialities. When I seek out potential speakers I shoot for the stars. I will try to get the most interesting and well known people in that subject, it never hurts to ask - you'll be surprised at their willingness to participate. These are the things that I consider:
    1. Hot topics in the world, ie: 3D printers, DIY, Physics/Astromony, politics, and arts.
    2. I pick a theme for my event and vary the topics. I'll never have two speakers on a similar subject talk.
    3. I meet up with all of my potential speakers first to see what their personality is like, and how passionate they are about what they do (that is very important. Their passion will transcend to the audience and keep them engaged).
    4. I know the demographics of my members. So I'll find something that interests everyone, from music to surgical innovations.

    Remember that you are bringing value to your community, enabling them to explore and expand their minds. Have fun in the process, and don't stress too much - things will fall into place naturally.

    Good Luck.

    JC

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