I’m a professional speaker coach in Brazil; have volunteered for many TEDx editions and recently had the amazing experience of coaching two North-American speakers to do their TEDtalks; and to coach Brazilian RV Game Creator Ana Ribeiro to do her TEDtalk in English at TEDxPAC. Below, I share some of the insights I’ve gained through this amazing ride!
It’s great to see our ideas flourishing. When Tony Longoria (organiser, TEDxPAC) and I met; during TEDFEST in New York, we chatted about the possibilities and richness of creating international collaboration among TEDxers (community of organisers and volunteers of TEDx). Fundamentally, our angle is; along with the very important local & community approach of TEDx; eventually some of those local talks end up gaining global audiences when the videos of the talks go online. Hence, to create international collaborations would add a perspective to the local event. Naturally, the organiser is a local person; and his/her close ties with the community shall ensure that such community is well represented in the live event; that the talks and themes relate and resonates strongly with the live audience. So, to add a foreigner to the team would help to expand the analysis of some themes and aspects; and this could facilitate that the talks get this other perspective from inception; given that global audiences will eventually be reached.
I was invited by Tony to coach some of the speakers; specially speakers who’s themes were deep, and worked in their preparation for TEDxPAC, flying to San Antonio, TX; for last rehearsals and event, on September 15th, 2018. I believe one comment of speaker Richard Jacobson summarises our aim and results in a certain way: “we worked on my talk in a way that we were able to dialogue and talk about how do we take my idea and message and open it up; because TED is an international audience; so you don’t want to limit that to a US-mindset; we worked a lot to get it out there in the right way”
Also important is to tell a bit about my experience during TEDxPAC while in Palo Alto College in San Antonio. I want to say that I’m no stranger to organising big events; I have created an organised corporate events for the last 15 years; and I have volunteered for TEDxSãoPaulo and other TEDx editions in Brazil. The experience at TEDxPAC was an amazing one. It was the first ever Palo Alto College TEDx; and the event had full support of Palo Alto College staff, board and presidency. The organisation was all very neat, everything flowed with excellence for the public; the volunteers were extremely helpful and all the people in Palo Alto College were very involved in getting it to perfection. One absolute highlight of the event was the curator work, masterfully conducted by Tony Longoria. Since attending many TEDx events, I am very accustomed to watch great curator work in action; but Tony’s highlight was the event was divided into sessions, clearly announced and well perceived, in such a way that the whole event evolved through themes in an amazing way, creating an “arc” for the content of the talks to be perceived in a “growing” completeness; and the line-up of speakers was organised in a way that each talk seemed to gain deepness & more perspective as the event flowed.
It’s really great to see that the relations and the collaboration in-between TEDxers of different places & backgrounds can help improve vision and achieve excellence; and we have much to thank to the incredible initiative called TEDFEST; where this collaboration was born. Many Thanks!
