TEDI love “TED talks”. If you don’t know TED, it stands for Technology, Entertainment, and Design.  TED is a nonprofit organization whose goal is to spread great ideas and affect positive change. It began as a conference in 1984 and now sponsors/supports a number of conferences around the world. TED has an interesting format, when presenting at TED, speakers have 18 minutes to deliver their message.

Many famous people have presented at TED, including Al Gore, Bill Clinton and Bill Gates. But some of the most interesting talks are from people you have never heard of. There are over 900 TED talks www.ted.com.

When you watch TED talks, you learn about different “ideas worth spreading” (TED’s tag line), but you can also learn a lot about presenting. Pay attention to the opening, the use of visual aids/ videos/props, the slides, and the closing.  Also watch the presenters as they tell stories, and see their passion shine through. The message they can get across in just 18 minutes is amazing.

I have a lot of favorites.  Sir Ken Robinson gives a wonderful talk on how education systems kill creativity. It has no visuals or props and is one of the most engaging talks I have ever seen. And Jamie Oliver’s presentation has that big STAR moment. Seth Godin’s talks are always interesting and he uses the most interesting visuals. TED talks show us that there are many different ways to get a message across.

What’s your favorite TED talk?

Joe Pops

Refuse to be boring

3 Replies to “What can you learn from TED?”

  1. I am big follower of Ms Duarte and her team; I was hoping someone would mention her talk. Thanks for the comment

  2. Thanks for the post, Joe. Always nice to see someone spreading the word about TED. I have several favourites including, like you, Ken Robinson’s brilliant first TED Talk. (The second one is great as well.) In case you and your readers are interested, here is my analysis of what made it such a great talk: http://wp.me/pwfa1-Ao
    Cheers!
    John

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