T.E.D. It! Constructing a TED Talk

TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is a presentation format that invites thought leaders to share their ideas during a formal TED conference. A TED style talk is highly inspiring and you can use this same structure to deliver your next speech.

How to structure a TED talk

Choose a topic that you are highly passionate about. Although there are many objectives to a speech – to persuade, to sell, to inform or to teach – every speaker ultimately is there to instill change. As a speaker you will be in a better position to instill change within your audience if you are excited about your subject matter. Successful speakers are those who cannot wait to share their message with their audience. Energy is transferrable – if you are excited about your topic, you can transfer that energy to your audience.

Build in personal stories within your talk that hints at your experience and credibility as a speaker. The Greek Philosopher, Aristotle, one of the founding fathers of communication theory – believed that persuasion occurs when 3 components are represented. Ethos – means credibility - we tend to agree with people with whom we respect for their achievements, titles or experience. Logos – means persuasion through logic, data and statistic and Pathos - the act of appealing to emotions. Stories are a way of appealing to emotions. Good stories are structured using a movie format: first introduce the key characters to the plot; then explain the challenge you faced and how you resolved it, finally ending with your lessons learnt and how those lessons can be related to your audience.

Package your content into a teachable format that is easy for your audience to remember. You can do this through a visual diagram or an acronym. Build your speech around the top 3 points that you want your audience to know.

Contextualise your message using relevant quotes, facts, statistics and graphs. If you choose to use power-point as a presentation aid – restrict the use of text and replace with more high quality visuals and diagrams – one image per slide.

Anchor your message using stories, visuals (video or photo), audience participation / activity

Review your content and think of creative ways to present it that appeals to multiple senses through the use of videos, photos, audio clips, stories and props.

Practice and rehearse – stage presence is vital – 18 minutes goes fast – record yourself a few times before you speak

Keep to the 18-minute time limit – sufficient time to inspire change.