What is a TEDx Talk?
Before you start the search for speakers for your event, it’s important to know exactly what a TEDx Talk is.
It also helps to understand the different types of talks worth spreading. That way, you know what you’re
looking for.
A TEDx Talk is a showcase for speakers presenting great, well-formed ideas in under 18 minutes.
Why under 18 minutes?
This short talk model works, since it only demands the audience's attention for a short period of time,
decreasing the chance of minds wandering or daydreaming about lunch. In fact, some of our greatest TED
Talks have been as short as 5 minutes long!
What is a great, well-formed idea?
It can actually be one of two things:
Something that’s new and surprising; an idea or invention that your audience has never heard
about.
A great basic idea (that your audience has maybe already heard) with a compelling new argument
behind it that challenges beliefs and perspectives.
In other words, an idea isn’t just a story or a list of facts. A good idea takes certain evidence or observations
and draws a larger conclusion.
Types of talks
When searching for speakers, you can keep in mind these seven different types of talks — not every
speaker’s talk has to be exactly the same.
The big idea
The talks that make one or two very strong points, and it’s important. Examples: Bryan Stevenson, Onora
O'Neill, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The tech demo
An onstage look at some clever new invention that the speaker was a part of creating. Examples: Tan
Le, Markus Fischer, Raffaello D'Andrea
The performance
Music, dance, magic, puppetry, or some other performance to captivate your audience. Examples: Usman
Riaz + Preston Reed, Arthur Benjamin, Pilobolus
The artist’s statement
In these talks, artists showcase their art and explain the meaning and process behind what they create.
Examples: Raghava KK, Liu Bolin, Aparna Rao
The “dazzle with wonder”
These talks are mainly about the amazement of science and discovery. Examples: Yoav Medan, Marcus
Byrne, Janna Levin
The small idea
These talks are not about one big, world-changing idea, but instead a very engaging take on an interesting
topic. Examples: Mary Roach, Joe Smith, Charlie Todd
The “issue” talk
These talks expose your audience to an issue that they may not otherwise know much about.
Examples: Rodrigo Canales, Lawrence Lessig, Rose George
History of TED
How did a one-off conference about technology, entertainment and design become a viral video
phenomenon and a worldwide community of passionate people?
TED was born in 1984 out of Richard Saul Wurman's observation of a powerful convergence among three
fields: technology, entertainment and design. The first TED, which he co-founded with Harry Marks,
included a demo of the compact disc, the e-book and cutting-edge 3D graphics from Lucasfilm, while
mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot demonstrated how to map coastlines using his developing theory of
fractal geometry.
But despite a stellar lineup, the event lost money, and it was six years before Wurman and Marks tried
again. This time, in 1990, the world was ready. The TED Conference became an annual event in
Monterey, California, attracting a growing and influential audience from many different disciplines united by
their curiosity and open-mindedness -- and also by their shared discovery of an exciting secret. (Back then,
TED was an invitation-only event. It is not now -- you're welcome and encouraged to apply to attend.)
Chris Anderson
TED's nonprofit transition
In 2002, Chris Anderson shares his vision for the future of TED.
Watch now
Meanwhile the roster of presenters broadened to include scientists, philosophers, musicians, business and
religious leaders, philanthropists and many others. For many attendees, TED became one of the
intellectual and emotional highlights of the year. That was certainly true for media entrepreneur Chris
Anderson, who met with Wurman in 2000 to discuss the conference's future. A deal was struck, and in
2001, Anderson’s nonprofit Sapling Foundation acquired TED, and Anderson became its Curator.
In taking the conference nonprofit, Anderson stood by the principles that made TED great: the inspired
format, the breadth of content, the commitment to seek out the most interesting people on Earth and let
them communicate their passion. It soon became clear that the ideas and inspiration generated at TED
should have an impact well outside the city limits of Monterey.
Accordingly, the years 2001–2006 saw three major additions to the TED family:
a sister conference, TEDGlobal, held in locations around the world
the TED Prize, which grants its winners one wish to change the world
an audio and video podcast series, TED Talks, in which the best TED content is released free
online.
The first six TED Talks were posted online on June 27, 2006. By September, they had reached more than
one million views. TED Talks proved so popular that in 2007, TED's website was relaunched around them,
giving a global audience free access to some of the world's greatest thinkers, leaders and teachers.
Playlist (6 talks)
The first 6 TED Talks ever
the first TED Talks posted online, shared with the world on June 27, 2006. Each one is powerful and
moving — and still resonates today.
Watch now
In 2008, in part thanks to new awareness created by TED Talks, we launched TEDActive, a simulcast
version of the springtime TED Conference, allowing more people to attend at a lower price. By 2009, the
number of TED Talk views had grown to 100 million views, making Internet heroes out of speakers like Jill
Bolte Taylor and Sir Ken Robinson.
Ken Robinson
Do schools kill creativity?
Our most popular talk to date, Ken Robinson's was the first talk to reach 10 million views.
Watch now
In that same year, the TED Fellows program was launched to bring up-and-coming innovators from around
the globe to the conference for free. The same year saw the creation of TEDx, a radical opening up of the
TED format to local, independently organized events. Around the same time, we embarked on the TED
Translator program, creating the infrastructure for TED Talks to be translated into 100+ languages.
In March 2012, TED-Ed was launched, creating short video lessons aimed at educators, and April 2012
saw the debut of TED Radio Hour, a partnership that brings ideas and stories from TED Talks to public
radio listeners. All of these projects aim to create ever greater access to ideas, for free.
Playlist (17 talks)
30 years of TED
Watch the world change over three decades in this nearly year-by-year playlist.
Watch now
In the fall of 2012, TED Talks celebrated its one billionth video view. As TED Talks continue to be watched
around the world, with an average of 17 new page views a second, TED conferences and events continue
to inspire, motivate and thrill attendees. In 2014, the annual TED Conference celebrated its 30th
anniversary in Vancouver, Canada. The theme of this milestone conference: "The Next Chapter," both a
reflection on developments of the past 30 years as well as a look at what's ahead.
Our organization
TED is a nonprofit devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short, powerful talks (18 minutes or
less). TED began in 1984 as a conference where Technology, Entertainment and Design converged, and
today covers almost all topics — from science to business to global issues — in more than 100 languages.
Meanwhile, independently run TEDx events help share ideas in communities around the world.
Our Mission: Spread ideas
TED is a global community, welcoming people from every discipline and culture who seek a deeper
understanding of the world. We believe passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and,
ultimately, the world. On TED.com, we're building a clearinghouse of free knowledge from the world's most
inspired thinkers — and a community of curious souls to engage with ideas and each other, both online and
at TED and TEDx events around the world, all year long.
In fact, everything we do — from our Conferences to our TED Talks to the projects sparked by The
Audacious Project, from the global TEDx and TED Translators communities to the TED-Ed lesson series
— is driven by this goal: How can we best spread great ideas?
TED is owned by a nonprofit, nonpartisan foundation. Our agenda is to make great ideas accessible and
spark conversation.
TEDx Talks - TEDx is an international community that organizes TED-style events anywhere and
everywhere -- celebrating locally-driven ideas and elevating them to a global stage. TEDx events are
produced independently of TED conferences, each event curates speakers on their own, but based
on TED's format and rules.
- a way to run a mini TED-style event in your own town hold talks around issues that matter
to your community free from corporate, political and religious agendas
