Reflections on my TEDx talk
Ever since discovering the wonderful TED web-site 2 years ago, it’s been my ambition to be a speaker at a TED conference. It’s a tough target, considering the roll-call of speakers includes Al Gore, James Cameron and Bill Gates! Launched in 1984, TED is a non-profit concept based on the principle of ‘Ideas Worth Spreading’. TED conferences originally brought together people from three sectors: Technology, Entertainment and Design, but the scope of TED is now somewhat broader.
TEDx is an independently organised version of what I call Big-TED and I was thrilled to have the chance to speak at TEDx yesterday at Warwick University. When I saw the stature of the fellow speakers I knew what Obama meant at the Nobel Awards when he talked about his accomplishments being slight! But I felt I had a good story to tell and, following my own advice’ gave it some ‘welly’.
The main thrust of my talk was a plea for us to focus on the human element of business, hence ‘From Capitalism to People-ism’. I drew upon some personal experiences of relationship-building in business, and how some of the great business thinkers had influenced me. I asked the 300-strong audience, many of whom were business students, to remember that all those spreadsheet figures are really the result of human interactions. And to understand business, you really need to understand something about human nature and behaviour.
The tricky thing is keeping to time. TED gives you just 18 minutes and the very presence of that timer counting down can throw you. Part way through I glanced at the timer and saw I had 8 minutes left. I picked up my pace, drew to a conclusion and saw I still had 4 minutes left! I was able to fill them but I did mis-manage the timing.
I absolutely love doing this stuff, but I still get dry mouth through nerves. Liberal applications of water helps, but when you’re miked up and conscious of time, you don’t want to interrupt the flow with too much glug, glug, glug.
All the talks were recorded and I’ll do an analysis when it comes out, but as usual I’ve been thinking of all the things I’d have done differently. I know I can do it better, but it was well received and I had a queue of people waiting to quiz me further, both in the Q&A and the break-out afterwards.
I also caught 7 of the other talks, all fascinating in their own way. I loved the passion of Herve This, a French physical chemist whose main theme is molecular gastronomy. He can say ‘green beans’ like no other human I’ve heard.
Noam Chomsky, the famous linguist, philosopher and political activist was eloquent on the topic of the global financial meltdown and the political responses to it.
But Sir Roger Penrose was the highlight for me. One of the world’s leading mathematical physicists, he’s worked with Stephen Hawking on the development of general relativity theory and the origins of the universe. Having just O-level maths myself, most of it went over my head but I tried to soak up his brain-power and feel the vibes!
It was fascinating to gain an insight into the workings of a superior mind, and I loved the way he used two OHP’s and hand-drawn acetates to explain such weighty matters as the big bang, black holes and the Higgs Boson particle. It was like a private viewing of his working notes, and all the more compelling for it. Pacing up and down between the 2 projectors , Sir Roger came out with the memorable line, “And I’ll just move the universe over here for a minute.” Wonderful stuff.
I don’t know if they’ll read this but I must congratulate the Exec Team at Warwick for pulling this event together. It was really well organised by the students, delightful people all and something I’ll remember for a long time. Thank you so much for inviting me to speak.
For me, it’s a step in the direction of my TED dream – Bill Gates watch out!
Well done Andrew for a) getting the gig and b) for pulling it off! I’ll bet you were dry mouthed. See you at International Women’s Day, Manchester.
I enjoyed your talk yesterday Andrew, and I thought your presentation style was confident and clear. I especially liked your message about value of people connecting. And like you I loved Roger Penrose’s old school lecturing style, showing that often (always?) it’s the charisma of the presenter and the strength of the message regardless of the method or tools of presentation. Even a video of Chomsky simply speaking to camera was compelling.
One thing I wanted to ask though, with the increasing use of social networking sites in professional life such as LinkedIn, is there a danger that we end up only superficial ‘connecting’, more like collecting contacts, rather than making a meaningful connection though personal contact? Danger is perhaps too strong a word, but having a network of hundreds of contacts, as some have, but without any meaning in those connections is a distraction from the real purpose of having contacts that that some mutually beneficial value. Or perhaps technology allow us to manage different kinds of connections, and it’s perfectly ok and indeed useful to have a network of contacts you’ve never actually spoken to, but have made though an association with someone you do know. So I was wondering what value if any you have found in LinkedIn and its ilk?
BTW I ordered a copy of Mike Heppell’s book Flip It based on your recommendation.
Hi David
Thanks for your kind comments – and what a great question you ask here! You’re spot on I think about there being different levels of contacts. Gladwell talks about that value of ‘weak ties’ and certainly the ones you have purely on-line are unlikely to be as strong as those you’ve actually met and got to know.
However, they can be really useful and one of the benefits of on-line platforms like LinkedIn and YouTube is its facility for conveying your character. I don’t think it can ever be a replacement for face-to-face contact, but through blogging, contributing to discussion forums and posting video clips, we help people get a feel for our character, values and beliefs.
Personally, I decided to concentrate on LInkedIn and after perhaps 6 months of really engaging with it, things are starting to happen. BUT and this is a big but, you MUST use on-line platforms in conjunction with inter-personal contact. I despair when I see people texting or e-mailing each other when they’re in the same room. If you lose the art of conversation and soft skills generally because you get out of practice, you’re at a disadvantage.
Faced with a huge number of candidates with fantastic academic grades, employers are increasingly looking at the so-called X-factor skills – can you speak well, persuade, motivate, work in a team, build rapport with people, write well, show creativity and strength of character? Employers are interested in what you can do, how you can bring value to them – not just what you know.
Glad you’re reading Flip It.
Others to consider…
Gladwell
Seth Godin
Tom Peters
Dan Goleman
Steve Yastrow
Enjoy and good luck!
[...] day was filled with brilliant, inspiring and interesting ideas. I was busy scrawling down notes, trying to capture all the excitement, that [...]
Hi Andrew,
I am ST, one of the two coordinators of TEDx Warwick. Many thanks for your excellent talk at our event last week and your generous feedback in this blog. We also appreciate that you spent your whole Saturday on our event and stayed until the end.
I have drifted through your website and realised that you do some training courses on different skills such as sales, persuation… I just wonder if you are running any of those during this Easter and Summer holiday? I need to gain some skills!