The Objective
Curate a programme to support a group of innovators from a range of industries and backgrounds – most amateur speakers – to have the skill and confidence to deliver powerful TEDx thought leadership talks about their unique ideas and work.
The Challenge
The innovators all had different topics, styles and levels of experience – and therefore the programme needed to provide each with the agency and authenticity to find what uniquely worked for them, while also fitting within the rules, guidelines, and timescale of TEDx events.
All talks needed to be below 18mins (some as low as 3mins!) and delivered to a ‘layman’ audience. Therefore speakers needed to both condense and translate the USP of their idea/message so it was universally accessible.
The Solution
A comprehensive 3 month group speaker development programme was designed, iterated and evolved over the 5 years of running the event (including major adaptations during the COVID pandemic). This involved fortnightly coaching and script check-ins with a team of different coaches and mentors – who each brought different options of style and approaches for the innovators to explore and experiment with.
In addition to the core programme, pre-engagement advice and presented content was created to encourage applications, and to ensure strategically suitable ideas where submitted. Psychological and post-event support was also provided; ensuring innovators successfully navigated the significant opportunity, and the pressure that came with it.
The Outcome
- Talks from speakers have gained 8million+ videos on TED.com (and continue to rise)
- Independent audience feedback rating of 9.7/10 average across all events
- Innovators reported very positive feedback about the support programme; stating how it had made a big impact on them both professionally and personally in both their speaking, message/innovation development and confidence as a thought leader. Many referred colleagues to future programmes.
