What to DO and NOT TO DO on your TEDx day

By Bilyana Georgieva, Public Speaking Coach, Multi-Award Winning Professional Speaker, Digital and Social Media Nerd, and founder of the ‘Red Dot Speaker Star’ coaching program, podcast and weekly newsletter.

This ‘Red Dot Speaker Star’ newsletter gives you tips, tricks and hacks for your successful TEDx Journey. Make sure you follow me on Medium and click the 🔔 button on my profile to be notified when I share them.

Many first time speakers , as well as speakers that have great experience on stage, do the same mistakes on their first ever TEDx day.

It happens because TEDx is, indeed, different from the usual conferences out there.

Today I will give you

5 NOT TO DO and the relevant TO DO actions that will make your TEDx talk pleasant and unforgettable experience.

Number 1:

NOT TO DO: Leave the red dot carpet when you are on stage

Know that the cameras are static, i.e. there is no camera man that will follow you as you walk on stage. Therefore TEDx speakers are asked to not leave the red carpet.

Instead, what I highly advice you

TO DO (1): Practise at home in a “fake red dot carpet” that has the size of the actual one. It’s usually 2 m diameter but best is to ask your organiser how big will be your one. By doing such practise your body will get used to how many steps you can do left and right. This way, once you are on the real stage, you wont feel limited and can concentrate on delivering your TEDx talk in full power, rather than worry if are you within the carpet borders or not.

To save you some money, here is an idea I always advice my mentees:

TO DO (2): Use a cello tape (masking tape, painters tape) to make a “fake” dot at home and practise within it. You can even use a bright colour marker to draw a circle line on top of the tape so your peripheral vision can easily spot where you are, while being in the circle and looking at the imaginary audience.

Number 2:

NOT TO DO: Don’t bring more than one outfits on the day and chose what to wear before you go on stage!

This will put unnecessary stress on you. When you get on stage you will still think, at the back of your brain, if you chose the best outfit, or you should’ve go with the other one. I know a speaker who brought 3 outfits and was still changing when they start announcing her name on stage.

Instead,

TO DO: Prepare one outfit before your TEDx day and make sure the colours create a great contrast with the stage background. You want to stand out both visually and with your words.

Before I give you the other 3 must-do actions and preparation I want you to

REMEMBER that TEDx is an event. Not just a stage where you go, speak and leave.

Hence,

Number 3:

NOT TO DO: Give business cards away and leave as quickly as possible, because you have something else to do

I’ve got few actions and ideas for you to do:

TO DO (1): Chose one or two main social media and prep easy way for people to connect with you.

For example you can us the LinkedIn QR code which you can generate from your mobile phone. It’s the quickest way to share your LinkedIn profile by asking the person to hoover their camera over the QR code. It will automatically open your profile so they can click the ‘Connect’ button.

If you have more than one main social media I highly recommend you to use Linktree. Check out my profile for inspiration how you can design it: https://linktr.ee/BilyanaG

TO DO (2): Connect with as many people as possible! Go network. People love connecting with the speakers after their talk and learning more about them. Use the breaks and the time after the event to meet as many people as possible

TO DO (3): Ask people from the audience to give you recommendations on LinkedIn. They just saw you speaking on stage. Im sure many will be happy to say good words about you

TO DO (4): Allow people to take a selfie with you and ask them to tag you on their post on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, etc.

TO DO (5): Let people do a short video with you and ask them to tag you on TikTok and YouTube using hashtag ‘shorts’

Number 4:

NOT TO DO: Go alone and rely on the professional photographer only to take pictures of you

TO DO: Bring with you your “personal paparazzi” — someone good with their phone camera, who knows how to take photos of you speaking on stage and getting the audience in the picture.

IMPORTANT: According the TEDx rules:

• No filming is permitted inside the theatre except the filming of the TEDx Talks; the only film crew that is allowed into the theater is the designated crew recording the TEDx Talks
• You can shoot b-roll in break areas, but not inside the theatre

Number 5:

NOT TO DO: Speak to the audience only and forgetting there are cameras as well

TO DO: The cameras are your YouTube audience! Don’t forget they are there, although you are not going to see them. Look at them, speak to them, interact with them as well

SHARE this article with everyone who is about to go on stage please and those who always wanted to do a TEDx talk.

Thanks for reading this week’s ‘Red Dot Speaker Star’ newsletter. Make sure you follow me on Medium and click the 🔔 button on my profile so you will get notified when I publish my next article.

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Sending you love and energy!

Yours,

Bilyana

#TEDxcoach #publicspeaking #tedxtips