Many of you might be familar with Videos from TED, called TED Talks (18 minute presentations from creative figures that are presented at an annual conference).
Teaching With Ted is a wiki put together by Jackie Gerstein to help teachers use these talks in the classroom.
Blogger Tim Longhurst has just published the list of ten presentation rules that are given to each TED speaker, and they’re good to keep in mind for any type of public speaking.
I’m going to reprint the first five here, but, since he did the work to find them, I figure it’s only fair that you should have to visit his blog to find the last five (Tim is a gracious guy, and was kind enough to leave a comment on this post sharing the remaining five rules so people don’t have to go to his website to get them. You can find them in the comments here, but I’d still encourage you to go to his blog)
1. Thou Shalt Not Simply Trot Out thy Usual Shtick.
2. Thou Shalt Dream a Great Dream, or Show Forth a Wondrous New Thing, Or Share Something Thou Hast Never Shared Before.
3. Thou Shalt Reveal thy Curiosity and Thy Passion.
4. Thou Shalt Tell a Story.
5 Thou Shalt Freely Comment on the Utterances of Other Speakers for the Sake of Blessed Connection and Exquisite Controversy.
Hi Larry! You’re a good sport sending people to my website, but since you’re such a good sport, here are the other five comandments, so no one has to my blog if they don’t want to! 😀
6. Thou Shalt Not Flaunt thine Ego. Be Thou Vulnerable. Speak of thy Failure as well as thy Success.
7. Thou Shalt Not Sell from the Stage: Neither thy Company, thy Goods, thy Writings, nor thy Desparate need for Funding; Lest Thou be Cast Aside into Outer Darkness.
8. Thou Shalt Remember all the while: Laughter is Good.
9. Thou Shalt Not Read thy Speech.
10. Thou Shalt Not Steal the Time of Them that Follow Thee
Thanks for the acknowledgment – but to be fair, I didn’t write the commandments – I just dug ’em up and dusted them off! Cheers, Tim