1
00:00:05,379 --> 00:00:06,730
What is a great TED Talk?

2
00:00:06,755 --> 00:00:08,776
What are the elements of a great TED Talk?

3
00:00:08,800 --> 00:00:10,601
What makes a TED.com talk?

4
00:00:10,626 --> 00:00:11,864
(Laughter)

5
00:00:11,889 --> 00:00:16,651
If you're thinking about that you'd like
some of the talks from your event

6
00:00:16,676 --> 00:00:18,173
to make it to TED.com,

7
00:00:18,198 --> 00:00:20,341
what are some of the filters
that we look at

8
00:00:20,365 --> 00:00:21,628
to come to that decision?

9
00:00:21,652 --> 00:00:23,469
Fortunately, they're really the same,

10
00:00:23,494 --> 00:00:26,337
what makes a great TED Talk
makes a great TED.com talk.

11
00:00:26,361 --> 00:00:29,958
But I want to talk through that
with you in a way you can think about both

12
00:00:29,983 --> 00:00:33,412
as you're booking speakers
and working with them.

13
00:00:33,437 --> 00:00:37,412
The first thing to thing
we think makes a great TED Talk

14
00:00:37,436 --> 00:00:38,956
is "Tell us something new."

15
00:00:38,980 --> 00:00:41,726
Many of us at TED come
from journalistic backgrounds

16
00:00:41,757 --> 00:00:46,911
and you can almost think about TED
as a biannual magazine on stage.

17
00:00:46,935 --> 00:00:49,796
We really think
about what is new out there.

18
00:00:49,821 --> 00:00:54,026
What are the new, different ideas
we haven't heard of before?

19
00:00:54,050 --> 00:00:55,311
Sometimes is the topic.

20
00:00:55,336 --> 00:00:57,679
There are speakers at TEDGlobal this year,

21
00:00:57,703 --> 00:01:02,395
who are here claiming
that plants have brains.

22
00:01:02,419 --> 00:01:03,982
I haven't heard that before.

23
00:01:04,006 --> 00:01:06,096
That's a really interesting perspective.

24
00:01:06,120 --> 00:01:09,179
Sometimes is a really
new angle on an old topic.

25
00:01:09,203 --> 00:01:11,251
For example, about climate change.

26
00:01:11,275 --> 00:01:14,843
We had Al Gore four years ago,
that was a really definitive talk

27
00:01:14,867 --> 00:01:17,032
that climate change
is a fact, it's a problem.

28
00:01:17,057 --> 00:01:19,501
To talk about climate change,
you need a new angle.

29
00:01:19,525 --> 00:01:21,753
Think about having a material scientist,

30
00:01:21,777 --> 00:01:25,262
or a photographer
who photographs icebergs.

31
00:01:25,287 --> 00:01:27,982
Someone telling the story in a new way.

32
00:01:28,006 --> 00:01:32,061
We think about this for TED.com:
is this new, fresh and relevant?

33
00:01:32,086 --> 00:01:34,799
One of the great, amazing things for us

34
00:01:34,823 --> 00:01:36,490
in working with the TEDx community

35
00:01:36,514 --> 00:01:39,629
is that you know your communities
and there are so many stories,

36
00:01:39,653 --> 00:01:42,470
ideas, issues and people
that are local to you

37
00:01:42,494 --> 00:01:45,667
that could be presented and brought
to an international audience

38
00:01:45,691 --> 00:01:47,504
in ways we've never heard of before.

39
00:01:47,529 --> 00:01:50,119
You're the eyes and ears
in your own regional areas,

40
00:01:50,169 --> 00:01:53,819
and we're so excited
about bringing those new ideas in.

41
00:01:53,844 --> 00:01:56,301
The second thing to think about

42
00:01:56,325 --> 00:01:58,111
is evoking contagious emotions.

43
00:01:58,135 --> 00:02:00,741
One of the things we consider
for talks on TED

44
00:02:00,765 --> 00:02:02,498
is "Are these talks spreading?"

45
00:02:02,523 --> 00:02:04,428
Are people sharing them with each other?

46
00:02:04,452 --> 00:02:06,146
Do they have a viral nature?

47
00:02:06,170 --> 00:02:08,779
When you think about viral videos online,

48
00:02:08,803 --> 00:02:11,773
obviously people first think
of kitty videos, and pranks,

49
00:02:11,798 --> 00:02:15,272
that you want to share because
they surprise you or make you laugh.

50
00:02:15,296 --> 00:02:17,635
But there are other kinds
of contagious emotions.

51
00:02:17,659 --> 00:02:20,901
People want to share something
when it is emotional.

52
00:02:20,925 --> 00:02:23,944
When something brings a lump
to their throat,

53
00:02:23,968 --> 00:02:26,332
or kind of brings butterflies
to their stomachs,

54
00:02:26,357 --> 00:02:28,444
they want someone
next to them to share it.

55
00:02:28,468 --> 00:02:31,164
But they also share things
that teach them something new.

56
00:02:31,189 --> 00:02:34,942
If you get an aha! moment from a talk,
you want to share it, let others know.

57
00:02:34,967 --> 00:02:38,013
Or if you've learned
something important, that feels urgent,

58
00:02:38,037 --> 00:02:39,251
you want to pass that on.

59
00:02:39,275 --> 00:02:41,042
Not every talk needs to inspire

60
00:02:41,067 --> 00:02:45,615
this incredible desire to be shared
with somebody else,

61
00:02:45,639 --> 00:02:47,706
but many of the great talks do.

62
00:02:48,716 --> 00:02:52,122
The next thing to think about
is to tell a story.

63
00:02:52,147 --> 00:02:56,651
This is so fundamental
to every great TED Talk.

64
00:02:56,676 --> 00:03:00,247
It's not just relaying facts,
it's not just a lecture.

65
00:03:00,272 --> 00:03:02,932
A great speaker takes you on a journey,

66
00:03:02,957 --> 00:03:05,661
they tell you a story,
they pull you along with them.

67
00:03:05,685 --> 00:03:09,250
It doesn't matter whether
it's about bacteria or architecture,

68
00:03:09,274 --> 00:03:10,815
fish or climate change.

69
00:03:10,839 --> 00:03:13,412
You're pulled in
and you go along with them.

70
00:03:13,436 --> 00:03:19,281
That doesn't mean that every person
has to describe their talk as a journey,

71
00:03:19,306 --> 00:03:20,906
but it should take you somewhere.

72
00:03:20,930 --> 00:03:23,593
Part of telling you a great story
is being personal.

73
00:03:23,617 --> 00:03:29,342
A great story tells you
something about the speaker.

74
00:03:29,366 --> 00:03:32,859
It doesn't need to be confessional,
you don't want to know everything.

75
00:03:32,883 --> 00:03:35,755
But you want to feel them
inside the story.

76
00:03:35,779 --> 00:03:40,461
A great talk that has
a personal story at the center.

77
00:03:40,485 --> 00:03:44,797
That personal story could be about
their passion for certain kinds of fish,

78
00:03:44,936 --> 00:03:50,856
or something from their childhood
that brought them to an insight later on.

79
00:03:50,948 --> 00:03:55,686
But the personal story, I think, is how
we relate to an individual TED Talk.

80
00:03:55,711 --> 00:03:58,045
We may not know anything
about the subject matter,

81
00:03:58,069 --> 00:04:00,095
or we may not even think we care about it,

82
00:04:00,120 --> 00:04:02,827
but we can relate
to that personal storytelling.

83
00:04:02,852 --> 00:04:07,217
You can also think about it
as a personal story with an idea inside,

84
00:04:07,241 --> 00:04:12,005
or an idea that has
a personal part at the center.

85
00:04:12,029 --> 00:04:14,677
This is an odd thing to say...

86
00:04:14,701 --> 00:04:17,175
My sister-in-law is a rabbi,

87
00:04:17,199 --> 00:04:20,815
and she says she uses TED Talks
all the time for "sermon fodder."

88
00:04:21,108 --> 00:04:25,090
And she believes every TED Talk
is kind of a secular sermon.

89
00:04:25,115 --> 00:04:28,788
It's kind of teaching you something,
it's giving you a lesson.

90
00:04:28,813 --> 00:04:32,272
It's giving you a way to think
about your own life and journey.

91
00:04:32,297 --> 00:04:35,210
That's very subtle,
I don't tell any of the speakers that,

92
00:04:35,235 --> 00:04:36,931
it's not part of our speaker prep,

93
00:04:36,956 --> 00:04:39,726
but it's an interesting lens
on what makes a great talk.

94
00:04:39,908 --> 00:04:42,565
One more thing about the personal.

95
00:04:42,590 --> 00:04:46,333
You want to guard against people
going too far in that direction

96
00:04:46,357 --> 00:04:47,548
and just a quick example.

97
00:04:47,572 --> 00:04:49,990
One of the trends we have to fight at TED

98
00:04:50,014 --> 00:04:54,098
is every speaker wanting
to replicate Jill Bolte Taylor's talk.

99
00:04:54,122 --> 00:04:59,231
Bolte Taylor was the neuroscientist
who observed a stroke from the inside out.

100
00:04:59,255 --> 00:05:02,948
Incredible talk,
our most popular of all time.

101
00:05:02,973 --> 00:05:05,337
But it's very unique,

102
00:05:05,362 --> 00:05:08,278
and people sort of misinterpret
what was great in that talk.

103
00:05:08,302 --> 00:05:11,882
It's great because it has science
combined with emotion,

104
00:05:11,907 --> 00:05:13,618
draws in your left and right brain.

105
00:05:13,642 --> 00:05:14,918
It's an incredible story.

106
00:05:14,943 --> 00:05:17,415
She shows a human brain,
she almost cries.

107
00:05:17,440 --> 00:05:19,281
It's an incredible journey,

108
00:05:19,306 --> 00:05:21,147
but often people will interpret that

109
00:05:21,172 --> 00:05:24,077
as just the part
about her crying at the end.

110
00:05:24,102 --> 00:05:28,312
They'll forget about all the other pieces
that went into it along the way.

111
00:05:28,337 --> 00:05:29,723
Guard against that.

112
00:05:30,306 --> 00:05:31,417
(Laughter)

113
00:05:33,795 --> 00:05:37,444
The next piece
is don't lose the audience.

114
00:05:38,298 --> 00:05:42,592
I've found this image by searching
for the word "'chase" on Flickr.

115
00:05:42,616 --> 00:05:45,580
But my idea is often times,
speakers who are such experts

116
00:05:45,605 --> 00:05:46,805
in their own area,

117
00:05:46,830 --> 00:05:48,942
will kind of race ahead of the audience.

118
00:05:48,967 --> 00:05:52,646
Many of the speakers that we bring
are experts in their own field

119
00:05:52,670 --> 00:05:55,435
and are used to addressing
people in their own field.

120
00:05:55,460 --> 00:05:59,515
Scientists that talk to scientists,
businesses to businesses audiences.

121
00:05:59,540 --> 00:06:03,716
Architects and artists are sometimes
the biggest culprits.

122
00:06:03,740 --> 00:06:05,763
They all use the jargon of their own field

123
00:06:05,788 --> 00:06:09,055
and that's incredibly alienating
to the audience.

124
00:06:09,102 --> 00:06:11,912
One of the things you want
to talk through with the speakers

125
00:06:11,936 --> 00:06:15,321
is this idea that they are speaking
to a general intelligent audience.

126
00:06:15,345 --> 00:06:17,250
That's something you can help them with.

127
00:06:17,274 --> 00:06:20,664
When you're inside your field,
you don't know what your jargon is.

128
00:06:20,689 --> 00:06:24,260
You don't know words like
"postmodernist structure"

129
00:06:24,285 --> 00:06:27,895
is not really accessible
to the average audience.

130
00:06:27,927 --> 00:06:32,271
That's something you can help
your speakers with, reviewing their talks,

131
00:06:32,295 --> 00:06:33,912
helping them understand.

132
00:06:33,936 --> 00:06:36,564
"I went to college
and I don't understand that word."

133
00:06:36,588 --> 00:06:40,023
Or "I'm tracking with you,
but you really lost me there.

134
00:06:40,047 --> 00:06:42,303
Can we think of another way
of explaining that?"

135
00:06:42,327 --> 00:06:45,337
That will be really helpful to them.

136
00:06:45,361 --> 00:06:48,379
Often times we'll see talks
that are such interesting topics

137
00:06:48,403 --> 00:06:53,794
but they are just addressed in a way
that the general audience can't follow.

138
00:06:53,818 --> 00:06:56,837
It's just too specific for us to use.

139
00:06:56,861 --> 00:06:58,785
The next thing is start strong.

140
00:06:58,809 --> 00:07:02,176
For us, this has to do both with editing
and also with the talk.

141
00:07:02,200 --> 00:07:04,400
On TED.com, we think you all know,

142
00:07:04,425 --> 00:07:07,351
or maybe some of you might not,

143
00:07:07,375 --> 00:07:10,458
we edit, of course, all the talks
that go on to TED.com

144
00:07:10,482 --> 00:07:14,181
No talk was as perfect on the stage
as it was when we put it online.

145
00:07:14,205 --> 00:07:17,464
We really work to bring
the speakers' best selves out,

146
00:07:17,488 --> 00:07:20,953
while staying extremely true
to what they actually delivered.

147
00:07:20,978 --> 00:07:22,391
But we edit out their "umms,"

148
00:07:22,416 --> 00:07:24,768
if they trip or spill water on themselves.

149
00:07:24,793 --> 00:07:27,732
All these things have happened
and won't appear on TED.com.

150
00:07:27,756 --> 00:07:31,616
What we also do, and it's really important
in TED Talks' success,

151
00:07:31,640 --> 00:07:33,669
is we edit the very beginning.

152
00:07:33,693 --> 00:07:39,377
We don't begin with the opening remarks,
the "hello," "Thank you for having me."

153
00:07:39,402 --> 00:07:42,693
Or even their opening jokes,
people like to have one.

154
00:07:42,717 --> 00:07:44,455
But their opening joke distracts.

155
00:07:44,481 --> 00:07:48,346
We edit the talk so that it begins
right where it takes off.

156
00:07:48,371 --> 00:07:53,218
We do that online because people online
are very vulnerable to distraction.

157
00:07:53,242 --> 00:07:54,559
We all know this.

158
00:07:54,584 --> 00:07:56,000
You start watching a video,

159
00:07:56,024 --> 00:07:58,457
and at the beginning
there's a host's introduction,

160
00:07:58,482 --> 00:08:01,652
something slow, and you don't mean to,
but you just got distracted.

161
00:08:01,676 --> 00:08:04,395
You start an email, or a web search,
and you're just gone.

162
00:08:04,420 --> 00:08:07,568
So we start our talks that way
and we edit them that way,

163
00:08:07,593 --> 00:08:10,822
but it's good to keep it
in mind for the talk itself,

164
00:08:10,847 --> 00:08:13,239
when you're hearing the person rehearse.

165
00:08:13,264 --> 00:08:17,659
We've had speakers at TED who wanted
to read two paragraphs out of a letter

166
00:08:17,684 --> 00:08:19,223
at the beginning of their talk.

167
00:08:19,248 --> 00:08:22,547
Or start with something
that really doesn't grab us,

168
00:08:22,572 --> 00:08:24,886
but two minutes in,
they get really interesting.

169
00:08:24,910 --> 00:08:28,428
It's just something for you to think about
as you're helping the speakers,

170
00:08:28,453 --> 00:08:31,468
to start on something
really compelling and interesting.

171
00:08:31,530 --> 00:08:33,340
Another thing to think about is focus.

172
00:08:33,364 --> 00:08:36,595
18 minutes is a very short
period of time, as you know.

173
00:08:36,620 --> 00:08:39,099
And there are talks even shorter.

174
00:08:39,124 --> 00:08:40,881
There is time for one idea.

175
00:08:40,905 --> 00:08:43,111
Only one idea.

176
00:08:43,135 --> 00:08:46,725
And it's so hard for most speakers,
and I'm guilty of the same thing.

177
00:08:46,750 --> 00:08:48,473
They want to tell everything.

178
00:08:48,498 --> 00:08:51,310
Or they want to have multiple ideas

179
00:08:51,335 --> 00:08:52,826
and get them all in 18 minutes.

180
00:08:52,850 --> 00:08:57,086
And they do that either by rushing
through things or leaving things out,

181
00:08:57,111 --> 00:08:59,224
or simply just by not quite making sense.

182
00:08:59,249 --> 00:09:02,608
Or not fulfilling
the potential of the talk.

183
00:09:02,632 --> 00:09:05,099
The more you can focus in, the better.

184
00:09:05,124 --> 00:09:10,861
This one is particularly for TEDx talks
coming onto TED.com

185
00:09:11,192 --> 00:09:14,382
In curating most of your events
you always want a mix

186
00:09:14,407 --> 00:09:18,994
of local and global ideas.

187
00:09:19,019 --> 00:09:23,092
One of the things with many
of the TEDx talks we've looked at

188
00:09:23,116 --> 00:09:27,326
is that they can often be very local

189
00:09:27,350 --> 00:09:32,089
without addressing the audience in a way
that can be expanded beyond that.

190
00:09:32,113 --> 00:09:35,066
And we have this issue at TED as well
as we work with speakers.

191
00:09:35,090 --> 00:09:38,788
I think that many of your events
will have local talks

192
00:09:38,820 --> 00:09:41,403
that are really interesting
to the people in the room,

193
00:09:41,427 --> 00:09:42,682
to the local community.

194
00:09:42,706 --> 00:09:46,397
But those talks aren't
quite appropriate for TED.com.

195
00:09:46,421 --> 00:09:49,670
For the ones we'd use, we want
to be able to extract wider.

196
00:09:49,695 --> 00:09:52,895
If it's a local idea,
have it presented in a way

197
00:09:52,920 --> 00:09:56,595
that a wider audience can see relevance.

198
00:09:56,619 --> 00:10:02,556
Part of the things that go into that
is being aware of regional knowledge.

199
00:10:02,580 --> 00:10:05,961
If you're talking about something local,
if there is an issue in Houston

200
00:10:05,985 --> 00:10:08,375
or a new building going up in Sao Paulo,

201
00:10:08,399 --> 00:10:10,971
everyone in the room might know
that this is happening,

202
00:10:10,995 --> 00:10:13,996
but just helping the speaker
give a sentence of context

203
00:10:14,021 --> 00:10:15,974
about what it is they're talking about

204
00:10:15,998 --> 00:10:18,209
will help the talk transcend the room

205
00:10:18,233 --> 00:10:24,084
and move into and be applicable
to the wider world.

206
00:10:24,109 --> 00:10:28,534
This doesn't mean you shouldn't be
covering certain local ideas,

207
00:10:28,558 --> 00:10:32,642
but should think about it with an eye
towards the people who aren't in the room.

208
00:10:32,711 --> 00:10:36,001
And this is something we've really had
to train ourselves on in TED.

209
00:10:36,025 --> 00:10:39,016
We are not addressing
a thousand fairly wealthy people

210
00:10:39,041 --> 00:10:40,984
in a room in California anymore.

211
00:10:41,009 --> 00:10:43,095
We're just not.
We're addressing the world.

212
00:10:43,119 --> 00:10:45,872
And that really shifts
how we think about the program.

213
00:10:45,896 --> 00:10:49,848
Our obligation to be broad,
our obligation to diversity.

214
00:10:49,872 --> 00:10:53,476
And to think about things more deeply.

215
00:10:53,500 --> 00:10:55,786
I'll give you one example

216
00:10:55,811 --> 00:10:58,667
of a talk that really
made us rethink things.

217
00:10:58,691 --> 00:11:01,464
We often had audience talks at TED,

218
00:11:01,488 --> 00:11:03,329
both at TEDUniversity and on stage.

219
00:11:03,353 --> 00:11:05,710
One talk that was just great in the room.

220
00:11:05,735 --> 00:11:10,296
People like to show vacation photos
and we've had a couple of talks like that.

221
00:11:10,321 --> 00:11:13,661
One of them was about a trip
that someone took to North Korea,

222
00:11:13,686 --> 00:11:17,505
and his perspective
and what he learned in this trip.

223
00:11:17,529 --> 00:11:20,899
It was fascinating
to the group in California

224
00:11:20,924 --> 00:11:22,321
that was listening to it.

225
00:11:22,346 --> 00:11:26,140
But it really sounded a bit offensive
once you put out to a global audience.

226
00:11:26,394 --> 00:11:30,179
And it wasn't actually
that there was anything...

227
00:11:30,713 --> 00:11:34,018
There's nothing wrong with the talk
in the context it was given,

228
00:11:34,042 --> 00:11:35,634
but it really had the wrong tone

229
00:11:35,659 --> 00:11:37,742
once you've opened it up
to the wider world.

230
00:11:37,767 --> 00:11:40,211
That's the type of thing
you have to think about

231
00:11:40,235 --> 00:11:44,302
when thinking about taking talks
from TEDx to TED.com.

232
00:11:44,327 --> 00:11:46,469
That they're going
to a much wider audience.

233
00:11:47,639 --> 00:11:52,837
Finally, I think the biggest secret
to the success of any TED Talk

234
00:11:52,861 --> 00:11:53,946
is practice.

235
00:11:53,971 --> 00:11:55,594
It's rehearsing.

236
00:11:55,618 --> 00:11:58,298
It's working with the speaker
from the first moment

237
00:11:58,323 --> 00:12:00,980
that you talk to them
and getting them used to the idea

238
00:12:01,005 --> 00:12:04,001
they're going to have to practice
and rehearse to get it right.

239
00:12:04,025 --> 00:12:07,678
There's sort of heartbreak,
with both TED and TEDx Talks...

240
00:12:07,736 --> 00:12:12,070
"That's such a good talk, but it's not
the best that person could give."

241
00:12:12,095 --> 00:12:15,914
They had a really good talk in them
but they didn't quite get it out.

242
00:12:15,938 --> 00:12:19,882
And honestly, the difference
between a medium talk and a great one

243
00:12:19,906 --> 00:12:21,440
is often just practice.

244
00:12:21,465 --> 00:12:24,199
It's having the person commit
to actually rehearsing.

245
00:12:24,223 --> 00:12:27,759
This is something that speakers
will often resist. Also our speakers.

246
00:12:27,783 --> 00:12:29,879
And I'm sure this happens
with your speakers.

247
00:12:29,903 --> 00:12:33,040
They feel they're above it
or they think it's kind of silly.

248
00:12:33,064 --> 00:12:34,636
Or they think they don't need it.

249
00:12:34,660 --> 00:12:36,397
Everyone needs to rehearse.

250
00:12:36,421 --> 00:12:40,610
It was interesting when we did
the Cannes advertising festival,

251
00:12:40,634 --> 00:12:43,806
one session was for TED
and Hans Rosling was speaking.

252
00:12:44,091 --> 00:12:46,495
He's the Swedish professor.

253
00:12:46,520 --> 00:12:49,186
Global health issues,
statistics on the screen,

254
00:12:49,211 --> 00:12:52,083
he narrates them crazily
and he's a fantastic speaker.

255
00:12:52,108 --> 00:12:54,919
He has five talks online.

256
00:12:54,944 --> 00:12:58,309
I think he has more views
than any other speaker on TED.com.

257
00:12:58,333 --> 00:13:02,686
The other speakers were furious with me
because I had put him on first.

258
00:13:02,711 --> 00:13:04,530
So they all had to follow him.

259
00:13:04,554 --> 00:13:07,407
But one of the things they noted to me

260
00:13:07,431 --> 00:13:09,855
is how much he rehearsed.

261
00:13:09,879 --> 00:13:13,118
From the second we opened up the room
and we were still setting it up

262
00:13:13,196 --> 00:13:19,145
for hours and hours, he had
this table and all these props.

263
00:13:19,169 --> 00:13:22,995
He kept going over it for hours
with a countdown clock.

264
00:13:23,019 --> 00:13:26,074
Moving the things around, practicing,
getting his phrasing right.

265
00:13:26,176 --> 00:13:28,605
And he's one of the most
successful speakers on TED.

266
00:13:28,629 --> 00:13:31,403
So that's one of the things
you could really integrate

267
00:13:31,428 --> 00:13:35,346
into your own practice
as a TEDx organizer,

268
00:13:35,371 --> 00:13:39,851
and really impress on your speakers:
the best talks are produced by practice.

269
00:13:40,777 --> 00:13:44,108
That is what I had to share
with you today.

270
00:13:44,132 --> 00:13:48,269
I'm incredibly impressed
with all the work you're doing,

271
00:13:48,294 --> 00:13:51,063
and so looking forward to seeing
all of your talks come in.

272
00:13:51,087 --> 00:13:53,136
And to talking to you over the next week.

273
00:13:53,161 --> 00:13:54,164
Thanks.

274
00:13:54,188 --> 00:13:55,263
(Applause)