Preparing speakers for their best talk ever

Rutger Bevers

When TEDxUHasselt invites speakers, we ask them to create the best talk they have ever given. We set the bar high with good reason: not only do 500 people attend the conference, thousands more watch the talks on YouTube. Of our 2012 conference, the 15 talks combined were watched almost 50,000 times. To assist our speakers, TEDxUHasselt team members help out in shaping the talks: from an early Skype meeting months in advance to an on-stage rehearsal just before the big day.

Although we do work together with a professional speaker coach, a large part of the coaching is done by our own team members – students. We are no public speaking experts, so we got help from someone who is: Lars Sudmann. As 5-times Belgian and one time European Champion of Public Speaking, he sure knows what he’s talking about! Although he usually hosts workshops on public speaking for large professional organizations, he was kind enough to organize one just for the TEDxUHasselt team. The perfect opportunity for teambuilding and learning about the secrets of a great TED talk.

As it turns out, giving a great talk is all about CODE:

  • Content: what to talk about?
  • Organization: how to order the content of a presentation?
  • Delivery: how to bring your presentation in style?
  • Effect: the icing on the cake that makes a great presentation an awesome one.

Lars Sudmann gave a very insightful presentation a while ago at TEDxFlanders, where he discussed CODE in more detail:

One topic Lars did not discuss in the TEDxFlanders talk but did discuss at our workshop is humor. After spending a lot of time on watching the most popular 3 minute TED talks, he figured out that, on average, the audience laughs 1.6 times per minute during a TED talk. 1.6 times per minute, that’s huge!

Lars Sudmann is a leadership expert who works with Fortune500 companies as well as high-performing startups on performance improvement, leadership and communication. Besides TEDxFlanders, he has also spoken at TEDxGhent. Check out his website:www.lars-sudmann.com.