TEDx Organiser Crash Course (Phase 2)
In Phase 1, we spoke about TED, TEDx, how is a TED talk different from other talks, why should one organise a TEDx and we reached the process of organising a TEDx where we understood speaker scouting and selection.
Moving forward, let us now start understanding how to build the speaker experience.
Speaker Experience
The way you build the experience for your speaker not only defines the quality of your event for the speaker but also for your audience. At the end of the day, the way your speaker feels, the way they deliver their talk on stage, how confident and comfortable they feel is also dependent on how you build their experience. The major product that a TEDx has to offer to its online and offline audience is its speakers.
Before I launch you into building the experience, let’s get used to a few terms that we use:
- Curation: This is the process of selecting the right information, idea, flow with your speaker. This is one of the most important processes as it defines the quality of the talk that the speaker will deliver. More often, the speakers that you choose will be clueless of the process of building a talk. Usually in conferences, a speaker is either assigned a topic or given some theme of what is expected out of them. In a TED talk, you have a blank canvas. Not a lot of people are used to having a blank canvas and might not know what to add to a talk and what to keep aside. Your curator becomes their team and helps them build a talk that adds value to the audience’s life. A curator needs to be able to extract the right information from the speaker by asking them a lot of questions and then work with them on those points or explorations and help them build a talk of their lifetime.
- Check-ins: Each speaker gets assigned a curator. Each curator could be working with 3–4 speakers. A check-in is a milestone that the expert and the curator need to achieve together. Building a TEDx talk is not a single day’s job. It takes months. In my experience, a 2 month timeline for building a talk really helps. I’ve broken the entire timeline into various check-ins and what the team needs to achieve around that time. This is not a standard method but is something that we have developed ourselves over two years.
Personal Note: When you start the process of curation, the first meeting should be exploratory. Many a times, a speaker might not be aware of the important milestones in his life or might not think of them as important but they may be pivotal for the talk. The first meeting with the speaker is very crucial because it sets the tone for the other check-ins. Be very patient and a great listener. Let them talk about themselves, be a shrink and extract as much information as you can from them. Once you have all the information in place, then you will be able to help them form their idea better.
- Throughline: When you are studying the process of curation on the TED website, you will come across this term a lot. Simply put, it’s the underlying genre of your talk. For example, when you are watching a horror movie, all aspects of the movie will follow that genre. The colours used, sounds, places, costumes, characters, music, everything will be in-sync with the genre- horror. Similarly, when you are building your talk , your talk needs to have an underlying theme that continues throughout the talk.
An idea is everything in a TEDx talk. Everything in their talk needs to be around that core idea. Here’s an easy trick to understand whether the idea in their talk is coming across or not:
Ask them to write down their idea in a short line. Then make a person who hasn’t heard their talk, listen to the talk and ask them what the core idea of the talk was. If their answer is close to what they wrote down, you know your speaker is headed in the right direction.
Let’s first explore the timeline:
This is a timeline that we use for TEDxSereneMeadows and has worked wonders for us. Along with the dates and timelines, you also need to make sure that you are working with the speaker and not making them feel the sole load of building the talk. Be their mentor, their friend, their sounding board. By making them comfortable, you will be able to get the best out of them. Help them with their research, keep motivating them, send them links of other talks that you think might help them. Building a relationship with your speaker will go a long way!
In order to send out these reminders and keep the speakers motivated and excited till the end we create email drafts that are scheduled for those particular dates in the timeline. This way you can constantly keep them engaged and the drafts and scheduling help by taking one task off your plate.
Draft Checklist:
- Acceptance Email
- Introduction to their curators and hand-over along with a program outline.
- Videos they should watch for references (I will be sharing my personal list soon)
- Check-in reminder emails (Needs to have pointers of things the speaker and the curator need to achieve in that period)
- Speaker Waiver Form: this needs to be signed by the speakers and received before the event.
- Travel Itinerary: try to be as descriptive and detailed as you can. It helps the speaker understand what to expect at the event.
- Welcome email: a day prior to the event, when they reach the city.
Note: Usually people tend to forget this but a rejection email to all those who had applied and were not selected is as important as the selection email. Make sure the email is encouraging the applicants and letting them know that there’s always a next year!
Basket of TEDx Goodies: This is not a compulsory activity but if you can create a goodies welcome basket for your speakers and send it to them before they reach your city/ event, that will make them feel very special. We create different kinds of gift baskets every year depending on the theme. For TEDxSereneMeadows 2020 we wanted to create a basket that had the essence of Nashik since none of the speakers were residents of the city. We gave them a bottle of wine from York (Since Nashik is known as the wine capital of the country), famous pickles and snacks from a home-grown 100 year old brand and some other interesting goodies, wrapped in a piece of paithani saree to make them feel welcomed.
We created this gift hamper for our speakers to welcome them to TEDxSereneMeadows 2020A must-do is a rehearsal session before the event.
Rehearsal Session:
I usually prefer having all my speakers in the city at least a day or two prior to the event so that they can mentally start preparing for their talk and get in the zone. A rehearsal session a day prior to the event helps tremendously. It not only helps the speakers deliver a more confident talk, but also helps them bond with you and each other.
This is how we run the Rehearsal Sessions:
- The whole day is planned like a look-alike session for the D-day. All the speaker slots are allocated on this day and the rehearsals are scheduled accordingly.
- All the speakers, organisers and crew stay in the same room the whole day. The day starts with introductions. Each speaker introduces themselves and the talks start. The emcee for the event also gets a feel of the flow. Listening to the talks first hand will also help him/ her build a better introduction for the talk on the D-day.
- Having the crew present here is important since most of them are going to be running around on the D-day and will not get a chance to listen to the talks. This makes them feel taken care of and adds value to their experience with you.
- If the venue is available a day prior, that will be the best place to practise. If not, try to book an audio-visual room where the speakers can practise their talks with the visuals, clicker and the timer.
- The speakers get to listen to each others talks and feedback is offered about jargons, flow and other suggestions. This helps build a sense of unity in the speakers. Now, the speakers will start acting as a team and cheer for one another.
Personal Note: You will see initial resistance amongst the speakers to speak and share their talk in front of each other. Remind them that this activity will help them get constructive criticism and build their talk better. Towards the end of the event, they will land up with friendships that will go a long way.
Compulsory Practise and Checks
- Timer: Get the speakers used to the timer early on. A big timer is kept on the stage facing the speaker so that they are constantly aware of the time. TED is very strict about its 18 min talk rule. Some speakers might find it intimidating to have the timer set on stage but if you get them accustomed to it in the rehearsal, it won’t be a problem.
- Clicker: The clicker gets very messy if the speakers haven’t practised with them. Usually out of nervousness on the stage, the speaker tends to click twice or panic if it doesn’t work even for a second. This should be taken care of in the rehearsals.
Personal Experience: One of our speakers was quite nervous before the talk due to some personal news right before his talk. When he went on stage for a few minutes, he presented very well and we all thought that it was going to be a seamless talk. But then, he started fumbling with the clicker. From then on, his slides wouldn't change. His entire talk was based on his slides since he was using the slides to showcase punch words. In this situation, we figured a way out. He would look at me while he was talking and I would change the slide manually from the tech console. In the end, he could deliver a brilliant talk but it would have been much better if he had more practise with the clicker. This was only possible because I had seen his entire talk a day prior in the rehearsal and could manage accordingly.
- Presentation Check: This is one of the most messy aspects of the talk. A lot of things can go wrong with the technology side of the presentation. Make sure that the laptop that you are using to play presentations in the rehearsal is the same one on the D-day. Check the presentation outputs with your technical coordinator for the event. A lot of times, the versions of softwares on multiple laptops may differ which will cause a lag/ distortion in the output. Also check the music and video segments of the presentation. Always have an online backup and offline backup for all the expert’s presentations.
- Red Dot: It’s a red circular carpet that is placed on the stage for the speaker to stand on. This is usually placed in a spot where the lights and cameras are focused on. It is recommended that the speakers don’t move far away from the red dot while talking on the stage unless an act is preplanned which requires them to move around.
- Mike: Usually in a TEDx talk, you are standing and need your hands free to make gestures and use the clicker. In such cases, a lapel or collar mike is put on the speaker. This kind of mike has a transmitter that is either put on the speaker’s back or is clipped on a belt or trousers. Make sure that you make the speaker aware of such a transmitter and ask them to choose their attire accordingly.
Personal Experience: In our of our talks, the experts transmitter was in the pocket of her jacket. Every time she moved her hands for gesturing, the transmitter would rub against the inside of her jacket and create a scratchy noise. This was heard by the audience sitting there and was recorded in the video. Try to avoid these situations by test runs. In the end, we had to send someone near the stage and give her a hand-held mike to eliminate further noise in the video.
- Quick Run Throughs: On the D-Day, make sure your speakers are reaching at least 2 hours before the gates open. Let them use this time on the stage to run through their slides, stand on the stage, practise with the clicker, understand the red dots, the lights, how people are seated and just take it all in.
Personal Note: Reserve the first two rows for the speakers since those are the two rows which are directly visible to the speakers on the stage. Everyone has already seen each others talks and will be more supportive of the other. Having friendly faces in the audience will definitely help with any speakers getting nervous on stage.
In Phase 3, we will be discussing about building the audience experience. Stay tuned to www.tedxserenemeadows.com for speaker applications for 2021!
