how to do a good presentation ted talk

"However, as soon as the audience figures out that you’re reading the text, it reads ahead of you because it can read faster than you can speak. The result is that you and the audience are out of sync.”

Kawasaki goes as far as saying that many presenters use small fonts because they haven’t memorized their presentations well enough. His solution? Use a font no smaller than 30 points.

“I guarantee it will make your presentations better because it requires you to find the most salient points and to know how to explain them well,” Kawasaki writes.

Note: Using a font size of 30 and above in your slides is also beneficial for audience members who have visual impairments.

9. Show your passion.

Have you noticed that it’s quite easy to spot when someone is actually excited about the topic they’re presenting — as opposed to someone who doesn’t care?

That’s because passion can’t be faked.

You can spend months getting the outline, words, and delivery right for your speech, but if you aren’t fascinated by what you’re presenting, the audience will catch on. You can’t expect people to be enthusiastic about your presentation when you aren’t excited yourself.

Showing genuine passion for your topic fosters a sense of intimacy between you and your audience. Your listeners will catch the “excitement bug” from you and become interested in what you have to say.

Pro tip: Before you give a presentation, take awesome time to remind yourself why the topic is so fascinating to begin with. When you know why, you’ll be able to pass on that energy to your listeners.

10. Develop stage presence.

The first time I had to give a speech, I was eight years old, and the speech was directed to my elementary schoolmates. My heart was beating so fast, and my hands were shaking.

When the time came, I stood in front of the crowd, stared at some tree in the distance, and reeled off the entire speech without moving a muscle.

My stage presence was zero. Nothing.

If you’re reading this, chances are, you’re not in elementary school, and you’re about to give a serious presentation. While standing stiff as a board with your arms stuck to the sides of your body won’t cut it, you don’t need to do too much either.

In his piece, Chris Anderson, TED Talks’ curator, wrote, “Getting the words, story, and substance right is a much bigger determinant of success or failure than how you stand or whether you’re visibly nervous. And when it comes to stage presence, a little coaching can go a long way.”

According to Chris, the biggest mistake people make with their stage presence is moving their bodies too much.

"People do this naturally when they’re nervous, but it’s distracting and makes the speaker seem weak. Simply getting a person to keep his or her lower body motionless can dramatically improve stage presence.”

Pro tip: If walking around the stage comes naturally to you, you can do that. If not, it’s best to stand still (not stiffly) and rely on hand gestures for emphasis.

11. Engage with the audience.

Earlier, I mentioned that you can start off your presentation by asking your audience questions. Well, the engagement shouldn’t stop there; it should continue throughout the entire presentation, however long it is.

There are many ways to engage with your audience. The most common method is to ask questions they can easily answer. How many of you have experienced this? Can you raise your hand if you’re familiar with this situation?

You can ask direct questions to your audience members to explain a point. Or you can use a person from the audience (whose name you should know) to illustrate a situation or an idea.

12. Practice, practice, practice.

Reading your entire presentation from a slide deck is a recipe for disaster. Slide decks (and other visual aids) are meant to be complementary, which means you’ll have to memorize the bulk of your speech.

“The only way to give a relaxed talk that sounds like it isn't rehearsed is to rehearse it a lot,” says Dr. James Whitehead, the CEO of My Green Window .

“When you can relax a little and rely on muscle memory to do most of the talk for you, you will be able to enjoy the experience and build a more positive relationship with the audience through your body language and clear pronunciation.”

Dr. Whitehead is right. Practice makes perfect. After writing out your presentation speech, you’ll need to practice continually until you know the speech inside out.

There are several ways to practice your speech, including:

• In front of the mirror (it’s cliche, but it works).
• Doing mock presentations to your friends and family.
• Rehearsing your presentation with your colleagues.

Pro tip: Choose a quiet place to memorize your speech so you can concentrate. If you’re rehearsing in front of others (friends, family, colleagues, etc.), ask for honest feedback. You’ll know where to improve. You can also time your presentation so you’ll know how long it’ll take you to deliver it.

Bevy’s talk encompasses all the elements of a great presentation, starting with her opening line, “I am a late bloomer.”

This is a strong start because it’s hard to imagine that Bevy Smith, a prominent TV personality and business professional, didn’t achieve success early in life.

Throughout her presentation, Bevy shared personal anecdotes with the central idea that you can be whatever you want to be, no matter how old you are.

She spoke confidently about how, as a 38-year-old fashion advertising executive, she quit her job when she realized that she was unhappy with her life. She segued into telling uplifting stories about her 94-year-old mother, Lolly, who’d always known what she wanted and who she was at heart.

During the presentation, Bevy peppered her speech with funny quips, like calling Jay-Z a Brooklyn poet and talking about how ‘Black don’t crack’ in the segment about the literal beauty of aging. So, while she didn’t directly ask interrogative questions, Bevy still interacted with the crowd through humor.

For her closing statement, Bevy challenged the common maxim, “Be your most authentic self,” by asking thought-provoking questions like: “What if you don’t really know who you are because you’ve suppressed your inner self?”, “Who am I at my core?” and “How am I perceived — and how would I like to be perceived?”

This is the train of thought that’ll linger in the minds of the audience after Bevy’s long left the stage. That’s her call-to-action.

Throughout the entire presentation, Bevy used no slides. She didn’t move around a lot on the stage, either. Instead, she relied on the power of her voice, her gesticulations, and the substance of her speech to make the necessary impact.

And it worked superbly.

Give a Powerful and Impactful Presentation

Giving a great presentation is a daunting task, but it isn't exactly rocket science.

Quite a lot of people experience presentation jitters, but you can drastically reduce your chances of delivering a bad presentation by following the tips outlined above.

While every audience is different, a general rule is that knowing your topic in and out and practicing your speech well ahead of time will give you the confidence you need to give a great presentation.

Don’t forget to enlist the help of your friends, family, and colleagues; they can look over your slides, help you predict audience questions, and give you pointers on where to improve.

Don't forget to share this post!

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.css-1qrtm5m{display:block;margin-bottom:8px;text-transform:uppercase;font-size:14px;line-height:1.5714285714285714;-webkit-letter-spacing:-0.35px;-moz-letter-spacing:-0.35px;-ms-letter-spacing:-0.35px;letter-spacing:-0.35px;font-weight:300;color:#606F7B;}@media (min-width:600px){.css-1qrtm5m{font-size:16px;line-height:1.625;-webkit-letter-spacing:-0.5px;-moz-letter-spacing:-0.5px;-ms-letter-spacing:-0.5px;letter-spacing:-0.5px;}} Best Practices 5 essential preparation steps for a successful presentation

by Tom Rielly • June 15, 2020

Keeping your presentation visuals minimalistic, simple, and clear is just one important step to remember when designing a hit presentation. Leaving nothing to chance, great presenters prove quite methodical as they prepare. Here’s a checklist for everything you need to keep in mind before your next presentation:

1. Choose the right software for your needs

The easiest way to select the right presentation software for you is to simply find the one that is native to your device. For example, if you have a Mac, use Apple Keynote, if you work on Windows, use PowerPoint. Google Slides is recommended if you’re working with someone, as it makes collaboration very easy. Another software option is Prezi: a specialty tool called Prezi that creates a presentation using motion, zoom, and panning across one giant visual space.

2. Organize your files

As you develop your script and visuals, you will need to start assembling all the assets for your slides. Create a unique folder on your computer to hold these items. Keep the folder organized by media type (presentation drafts, photos, videos, scripts) and back them up frequently to the Cloud or external disk. Label each file with a specific descriptive name, e.g. “Susan Johnson singing magpie 2020”, as opposed to “IMG_4043.jpg”, which can make it confusing to find your assets. The more organized you are up front, the easier preparing for your presentation will be.

3. Prepare your presentation materials

Make sure your presentation materials (script, graphics, actual slides) are saved in at least two safe spots (for example, your computer and an external USB drive) and are backed-up frequently. If you are using an online presentation software, such as Google Slides, be sure to also download a copy of your presentation in case the internet connection is unreliable. Having all the individual assets on hand in addition to your presentation slides can be helpful if you experience tech issues before presenting, or if you need to make any last minute changes. Make sure to label your final presentation with the title and your name so it’s easy to find.

4. Practice, practice, practice!

Remember, practice makes perfect. People often run out of time making their presentations and have no time to practice. Most TED speakers practice at least ten times. Neuroscientist Jill-Bolte Taylor gave one of the most successful Talks in TED history with nearly 27 million views. How did she do it? She practiced her Talk over 40 times! By rehearsing multiple times you will naturally memorize your Talk, which means you won’t need note cards when you give your final presentation.

5. Do a final test run

Before presenting, make sure the equipment you need is working properly. It’s generally good practice to rehearse standing on the exact stage with the exact lighting using the exact computer that you will be using in your final presentation.

Here’s a quick checklist of what to look for when testing your equipment:

• If you're not using your own computer, the one provided might be slower and have trouble playing media. If you have videos or other media, make sure they play correctly
• Test the projector to make sure it’s HD
• Make sure images are clear
• Test the sound of any clips you use, as this is what goes wrong most frequently
• If you’re using a mic, test the volume

Don’t let technical issues or other blunders overshadow your presentation. By following these guidelines, and with a little preparation, you can engineer out the problems BEFORE they happen.

Ready to learn more about how to make your presentation even better? Get TED Masterclass and develop your ideas into TED-style talks

© 2024 TED Conferences, LLC. All rights reserved. Please note that the TED Talks Usage policy does not apply to this content and is not subject to our creative commons license.

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How to Create Your TED Talk: An 8-Step Process

by Jezra on March 9, 2017

First, A Little Background on TED

The TED conference (which stands for  technology, entertainment, design ) began life in 1984 as a yearly and very expensive conference where industry leaders and creative types gathered to exchange “Ideas Worth Spreading.”

Back then, it was all about the live experience, and speakers were expected to bring some quirky spontaneity to the stage.

But fast forward more than 30 years, and TED has become an institution, spawning countless local “TEDx” events, putting hundreds of speeches online each year, getting millions upon millions of views, and changing the way we all think about public speaking!

So, What  IS  a TED Talk?

According to Chris Anderson, the owner and global curator of TED, every TED talk starts with an idea :

“You have something meaningful to say, and your goal is to re-create your core idea inside your audience’s minds.” —from TED Talks: The Official TED Guide to Public Speaking

Anderson calls this idea “the gift in every great talk.” Your idea may:

• Be common-sense (“Every kid needs a champion”) or counter-intuitive (“The way we think about charity is wrong”)
• Describe a scientific breakthrough (“How bacteria talk”) or your own experience (“I am the son of a terrorist, here’s how I chose peace”)
• Motivate people to action (“We need to talk about an injustice”) or greater self-awareness (“Your elusive creative genius”)

But in every case, your TED talk will begin with an idea.

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And whether or not your talk actually builds a model of your idea in your listeners’ brain — Anderson takes that literally, and research on “neural coupling” backs him up — your TED talk exists to communicate this idea to your listeners.

That is your talk’s one and only goal.

Other Qualities of Successful TED Talks

In TED’s secret to great public speaking (an eight-minute video that’s worth watching), Anderson offers three guidelines for creating your TED talk:

• Focus on one major idea

Ideas are complex things; you need to slash back your content so that you can focus on the single idea you’re most passionate about , and give yourself a chance to explain that one thing properly… Everything you say [should link] back to it in some way.

• Give people a reason to care

Stir your audience’s curiosity. Use intriguing, provocative questions to identify why something doesn’t make sense and needs explaining. If you can reveal a disconnection in someone’s worldview , they’ll feel the need to bridge that knowledge gap.

• Build your idea with familiar concepts

Build your idea, piece by piece, out of concepts that your audience already understands … A vivid explanation… delivers a satisfying ah-hah! moment as it snaps into place in our minds.

These are important best practices, but they don’t tell you what to  do  to create a TED talk.

For that, try this…

8-Step Process for Creating Your TED Talk

Step 1. find an idea you want to share.

To hone in on your idea worth sharing, it can be useful to ask yourself things like:

• What’s one assumption I’d like to challenge?
• What’s a belief of mine that has changed, and why?
• What does everyone miss when they think about my area of interest or expertise?

And remember, you’re looking for an idea . As Jeremey Donovan says in How to Deliver a TED Talk ,

…an idea is not a theme, a general truth, a platitude or a big goal. “Everyone wants to feel included” is not an idea, it’s a general truth. “Empowering women” is not an idea, it’s a topic.

Step 2. Develop an unexpected and/or catchy way to state your idea

If your idea can be stated in a catchy way, listeners will pay more attention and remember it more easily. Here are some examples (with more conventional versions of the same idea in parentheses):

• We can solve malnutrition now (vs. Malnutrition is a problem that is finally, in our day and age, able to be resolved by advances in science.)
• Almost dying saved my life (vs. A near death experience created the motivation for me to face and overcome problems that otherwise would have slowly killed me.)
• Never, ever give up (vs. Cultivate the ability to commit without wavering; it’s an essential component of your lifelong success.)

Step 3. Collect anything and everything that relates to your idea

To re-create your idea in the minds of your listeners, you’ll need vivid examples, illustrations, stories, facts, questions, comments, etc.

So take a few days to notice anything and everything that relates to your idea, and collect these materials by writing them down, taking photos, recording your thoughts as sound files, etc.

Examples of things you might collect include:

• a snippet of conversation
• a quote you heard in high school
• a story that relates to your idea
• a fact, or cluster of data that supports it
• a metaphor or analogy that helps explain it
• a personal moment in your relationship with the idea
• a physical object that will help your audience understand it (here, my client Erika Frenkel presents an anesthesia machine )

Basically, anything that comes to your mind at this stage should be collected.

And don’t worry yet about which materials will end up in your talk.

You can’t collect  things and evaluate  them at the same time, so just collect for now; you’ll have a chance to evaluate later.

Step 4. Start imagining how you might open and end your talk

While it’s too soon to choose your opening and close, it’s not too soon to start playing with ideas for these important parts of your talk.

An effective way to begin any speech (not just a TED talk) is to grab your audience’s attention — often with a human interest story, a surprising statistic, an unexpected observation, or a thought-provoking question.

There are probably some great attention-grabbers in the material you collected for Step 3. Pick one that you particularly like, and flag it as a possible  opening for your talk.

As for the close , you’ll probably want to end your talk in a positive, forward-looking way . This is often done by:

• calling the audience to action;
• painting a hopeful picture of the future; and/or
• “paying off” (finishing, resolving) a story or discussion that has run through your talk, so that listeners get a sense of closure.

With your provisional opening and close in mind, you’re now ready to…

Step 5. Put the rest of your materials in a reasonable order

The middle of any speech is tricky, and a TED talk is particularly so, because TED talks can take just about any form you’d like.

So to tackle this part of your TED talk, take the materials you’ve collected and shuffle them until you find a good arrangement. To do this, you can:

• Create a high-level outline (leave out most of the detail, just arrange the big points or elements)
• Write each element (story, comment, observation, fact) on a 3 x 5 card and physically shuffle them to see different possible orders. (You can do this on a table, or digitally, by creating one slide per element and shuffling them with PowerPoint’s “slide sorter” feature)
• Use sound (speaking out loud) instead of writing to put your talk elements into different sequences (Ask: Does it sound right if I tell that story first, then give the fact? How about if I give the fact first, then tell the story?)
• Try any other method that works for you.

How will you know when the order is good?

Keep in mind that your goal is to create an understanding of your idea in the minds of your audience members , and try to arrange your explanations, comments, and stories in a way that leads to that goal. (You’ll get to test this on real people in Step 7.)

Trust your instincts: If something seems out of place to you, it probably is. Try moving it to a different part of your talk or even skipping it, and see if that works better.

And don’t expect to find the best organization for your talk the first time you try, because that almost never happens!

Step 6. Talk your way to a rough draft of your script

This is where your “speaking plan” becomes a “speech.”

Take your outline or list of ordered elements and talk about each item in turn.

When I’m writing a speech, I like to literally talk it out loud and type up what I’m saying as I’m saying it — but you can also use your computer’s voice recognition software to capture your words, or talk into the voice memo feature on your phone (this used to be called “dictating”) and type up the sound file later.

Why  record yourself talking  instead of just writing out the speech?

Because most of us get all formal and stiff when we write, and the ideal for a talk is that it sounds like you’re…  talking !

And here’s a hint:

As you do this step, pay particular attention to the way different elements (materials) that you’ve used in your talk are connected.

If, for example, you tell me that:

• The river flooded, and
• Some people moved out of the neighborhood…

I’ll want to know: Did people move  because  the river flooded? Did most people stay even though  the river flooded? Did the river flood  after  people had already moved?

When you spell things out clearly, people will form a clear picture of your point.

Step 7. Try out your Ted talk draft on a volunteer listener

The point of this step is to get feedback on how to improve the structure and clarity of your draft.

Ask someone you trust — a smart 10-year-old is perfect — to listen to your talk.

Read it to them (because you haven’t finalized, let alone memorized, it yet), and then ask them:

• Did I explain my idea clearly?
• Was there anything in my talk that you didn’t follow?
• Was there anything you didn’t understand?
• Did anything seem out of place?
• Did I lose your interest anywhere?

If your listener wants to discuss the 6,000 facts you left out, or how your talk should really be about X instead of Y, gently lead them back to these questions.

The point is not to  change  your talk. The point is to  improve  it’s effectiveness.

Step 8. Repeat the following steps as needed

• Based on your listener’s feedback, make changes that will improve your draft. But don’t get carried away editing; if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! (And keep your old drafts in case you want to go back to something you did earlier; I number mine v1, v2, v3, etc.)

2. Practice delivering your new draft out loud.

3. Try out your new draft on a volunteer listener, get their feedback , and repeat these steps as often as needed until your talk has taken a satisfying shape.

And finally…

There’s no better time to start working on your talk than now. Even if your schedule is crammed, you’re better off working for a few minutes each day than leaving everything to the last minute!

And as you work this process, remember that perfection isn’t possible.

So instead of striving for perfection, prepare carefully, take your best shot, and try to  relax .

Your audience is going to love this talk — and you deserve to enjoy it, too!

Need Coaching or Speechwriting for Your TED Talk? Get in Touch!

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• Giving a TED-Style Talk? Here's How They're Different from Business Presentations
• TED Has Eliminated Two Things That Used to Be Said In Most Speeches: Hello and Thank You. Should You?
• Masterful Public Speaking: Daniel Kraft's TEDx Talk

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Mastering the art of a powerful TED Talk presentation

Get your team on prezi – watch this on demand video.

Anete Ezera August 08, 2023

TED Talks have become synonymous with captivating storytelling, inspiring ideas, and thought-provoking presentations. Delivering a successful TED Talk requires more than just having great content; it demands excellent presentation skills and a well-designed presentation. In this article, we’ll explore some essential tips and techniques for how to do a TED Talk presentation. We’ll delve into inspiring examples from past TED Talks, including Prezi presentations, and highlight the latest TED Talk presentations that showcase exceptional presentation skills. Whether you’re an aspiring TED speaker or simply interested in improving your presentation abilities, this article will equip you with the knowledge you need to shine on the TED stage.

The evolution of TED Talk presentations

TED Talks have evolved over the years, with speakers continually pushing boundaries and experimenting with new presentation styles. This section explores the evolving landscape of TED Talk presentations and how speakers have embraced innovative approaches to captivate audiences.

Unconventional presentation formats

While traditional TED Talk presentations often feature a single speaker on stage, there has been a rise in unconventional formats that add a unique twist to the storytelling experience. Some speakers have incorporated multimedia elements, interactive displays, or live demonstrations to create a more immersive and dynamic presentation. These innovative formats not only engage the audience but also leave a lasting impression.

Engaging visual storytelling techniques

Visual storytelling has always been a key aspect of TED Talk presentations, but speakers have been finding new ways to captivate their audience visually. They utilize compelling visuals, animations, and data visualizations to simplify complex concepts and enhance the impact of their message. By using innovative visual storytelling techniques, speakers can create a visually stimulating experience that keeps the audience engaged throughout their talk.

Embracing technology

As technology continues to advance, TED Talk speakers have embraced its potential to enhance their presentations. From incorporating virtual reality and augmented reality elements to utilizing interactive apps and tools, speakers have found creative ways to leverage technology to immerse their audience in their ideas. These technological innovations elevate the overall experience and make TED Talks more engaging and memorable.

Collaborative and crowd-sourced talks

In recent years, TED has experimented with collaborative and crowd-sourced talks, where multiple speakers come together to present a cohesive narrative. These talks bring together diverse perspectives and foster a sense of collective storytelling. By collaborating with other experts and involving the audience in the creation process, speakers can tap into collective wisdom that enriches their presentations and brings a fresh dimension to TED Talks. If you’re planning to co-present, discover essential co-presenting tips . 

The power of micro TED Talks

Micro TED Talks, also known as TEDx Shorts , have gained popularity for their concise and impactful nature. These shorter talks, often under 10 minutes, focus on delivering a powerful message in a concentrated format. Speakers must distill their ideas to their essence, resulting in talks that are concise, thought-provoking, and easily shareable. The rise of micro TED Talks showcases the evolving preferences of audiences who value impactful content in bite-sized formats.

By embracing unconventional presentation formats, engaging visual storytelling techniques , leveraging technology, exploring collaborative approaches, and recognizing the power of micro TED Talks, speakers are pushing the boundaries of traditional TED Talk presentations. These innovative approaches demonstrate the ever-evolving nature of TED Talks and the creativity of speakers in captivating and inspiring their audiences.

Amplify your TED Talk using the power of Prezi

While storytelling and engaging delivery are crucial components of a TED Talk, the visual aspect plays a significant role in amplifying the impact of your presentation. In this section, we’ll explore how Prezi , a dynamic presentation tool, can take your ted talk to the next level by enabling visually stunning and immersive storytelling experiences .

Leveraging the power of non-linear presentations

Traditional slide decks often follow a linear format, limiting the flow and creativity of the presentation. Prezi allows speakers to break free from these constraints and create non-linear presentations that offer a more fluid and engaging narrative. By utilizing zooming, panning, and path animations, speakers can guide the audience through a visual journey that enhances the storytelling experience.

Creating engaging visual metaphors

Metaphors have the power to convey complex ideas in a relatable and memorable way. With Prezi, speakers can utilize visual metaphors to make abstract concepts more tangible and accessible to the audience. By seamlessly transitioning between different visual representations, speakers can create a deeper connection and understanding of their ideas.

Incorporating multimedia elements

Prezi allows for the seamless integration of multimedia elements such as videos, images, and audio into your TED Talk presentation. By strategically incorporating these elements, speakers can enhance the emotional impact of their message, provide supporting evidence, or add a touch of creativity to captivate the audience. Thoughtful use of multimedia can evoke powerful emotions and create a multi-sensory experience. 

Amplifying data visualization

Data visualization is an effective way to present complex information in a clear and compelling manner. With Prezi’s dynamic and interactive features, speakers can transform data into engaging visuals that help the audience grasp key insights. With interactive charts and graphs, Prezi enables speakers to present data in an impactful way that enhances the overall TED Talk experience.

Enhancing collaboration and co-creation

Prezi offers collaborative features that enable speakers to involve others in the creation process. Whether it’s co-creating the presentation with a team or seeking feedback from trusted individuals, collaboration can lead to richer and more diverse perspectives. By leveraging Prezi’s collaboration tools, speakers can refine their ideas, strengthen their narrative, and ensure a more polished TED Talk presentation.

How to take your TED Talk to the next level

Before diving into examples and the presentation tips TED Talks require, it’s crucial to grasp the fundamental elements that make a TED Talk truly remarkable. TED Talks are renowned for their captivating storytelling, brevity, and ability to connect with the audience on an emotional level. By incorporating personal anecdotes, relatable examples, and powerful metaphors, speakers can create a memorable and engaging TED Talk presentation that resonates with their listeners.

Top tips for a successful TED Talk presentation

A TED Talk is an opportunity to share unique insights and inspire audiences around the world. Here are some tips that can help you craft a compelling and memorable presentation.

Choose a topic you are passionate about

TED Talks are about sharing your passions and insights. Choose a topic that you are passionate about and that you believe will inspire and captivate your audience.

Create a strong narrative

Your talk should tell a story. Structure your presentation with a clear beginning, middle, and end. Draw in your audience with personal anecdotes and relatable experiences. 

Learn how to effectively structure your presentation in the following video:

Practice your delivery

The way you deliver your presentation can be just as important as the content itself. Practice speaking clearly and confidently, maintaining eye contact with your audience, and using your body language to convey enthusiasm and emotion.

Use visuals effectively

Using engaging visuals can greatly enhance your presentation. A tool like Prezi allows you to create dynamic, interactive TED Talk presentation slides that can add depth and richness to your narrative.

Steps to create an engaging TED Talk presentation

Crafting a TED Talk presentation that resonates with your audience requires careful planning and preparation. Here are some key steps to help you on this journey.

Identify your key message

What is the one key message you want your audience to take away from your talk? Identify this early on and make sure every element of your presentation supports this message.

Plan your content

Outline your presentation, ensuring you have a clear structure and flow. Make sure to include a strong introduction that captures the audience’s attention. Establish a main body where you explore your topic in-depth and add a compelling conclusion that reinforces your key message.

Design your slides

Use a tool like Prezi to create engaging and visually appealing slides. Your slides should enhance your narrative, not distract from it. Keep text minimal and use images, charts, and videos where appropriate.

Discover the best presentation design practices by watching this video:

Rehearse your talk

Practice your presentation several times to get comfortable with your content and delivery. Consider timing your rehearsal to ensure you stay within the allocated time for your talk.

Engage your audience

During your presentation, aim to engage your audience by maintaining eye contact, using appropriate body language, and inviting interaction where possible. The more engaged your audience, the more impactful your talk will be.

Inspiring TED Talk presentation examples featuring Prezi

Prezi presentations have been utilized in TED Talks to create captivating visual experiences. “Blackout: The Hidden Structures of Modern Society” by Marc Elsberg is a prime example of how Prezi can be used to unravel complex societal issues through visually engaging content. 

Another notable example, “The Air We Breathe” by Mark Turrel, employs Prezi to raise awareness about air pollution and its impact on public health. 

These TED Talks demonstrate the versatility of Prezi in enhancing the overall presentation. Discover other highly inspirational and visually capturing TED Talk Prezi presentation examples and get inspired to create your own.

Latest TED Talk presentations showcasing exceptional presentation skills

In recent years, TED Talks have continued to inspire with exceptional presentations. “A Seat at the Table” by Lilly Singh sheds light on the importance of diverse voices and inclusion. 

“The Benefits of Not Being a Jerk to Yourself” by Dan Harris delves into the significance of self-compassion. 

Furthermore, “Why Having Fun is the Secret to a Healthier Life” by Catherina Price explores the connection between joy and well-being. 

All of these TED Talk presentations showcase the power of authentic storytelling and delivery in captivating an audience. 

Learn how you can master TED Talk delivery skills by watching the following video, where we compiled and analyzed the top TED Talk presentation skills from iconic talks: 

TED Talk presentation templates for a polished outcome

To simplify the process of creating visually appealing slides, various pre-designed presentation templates are available. Utilizing templates allows speakers to focus on developing compelling content rather than starting from scratch. Prezi offers a wide range of presentation templates that align with the aesthetics and requirements of TED Talks. By utilizing these templates, speakers can achieve a polished and professional outcome.

Empowering your TED Talk journey

Mastering the art of delivering a remarkable TED Talk presentation requires a combination of storytelling expertise, effective slide design, and engaging delivery. By following the tips and techniques outlined in this article, drawing inspiration from impactful TED Talk examples, and utilizing Prezi presentation templates , you’ll be well on your way to creating a TED Talk that leaves a lasting impression. Embrace the TED Talk spirit, ignite your passion, and let your ideas take flight on the TED stage.

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Here’s what 25 TED talks tell us about delivering winning presentations

Originated in 1984, TED talks have come a long way from Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED) to the treasure trove of ideas worth spreading. The popularity of TED talks is clear evidence that we are interested in listening to people who can tell the story right. We all have relied on TED talks to improve our presentation and communication skills.

Nowadays, it’s more important than ever to have effective communication skills to make your mark in the world, regardless of the career choice you make. There are certain characteristics that are common of the world leaders and their communication style. This includes both verbal and non-verbal aspects, starting from saying your name right to engaging the audience to creating an impact. To know this better, we watched all 25 TED talks on presentations that speak about the different aspects for a great presentatio n. Here are the key takeaways from the talks, each of which practices what it preaches.

Biggest takeaways from TED talks to improve presentation skills

1. form a connection with the audience.

Any form of communication from public speaking to a business meeting to a friendly conversation requires you to establish a connection with the person you’re communicating to. Don’t try to impose your ideas without understanding your audience and what they want. So, in the first few minutes of the presentation, try to analyze your audience and tweak the parts of your presentation to fit the context and audience well.

Introduce yourself and tell them why they should listen to you, and ask them what they expect from the presentation. Find ways to engage and interact with them. This way, they will feel included in the presentation and would be ready to listen to you.

2. Avoid the jargons, tell a story

Remember that you are talking about something you have expertise or training in. Hence, there will be terminologies that may seem trivial to you. But if your audience can’t get around the jargons, you have lost them already. The real challenge is in breaking down the jargons and handing them over to the audience in bits they can chew.

Your job is not to give them definitions and technical definitions which they can easily find elsewhere. They need to know why and how that matters to them. They have come to listen to your story, so tell them one.

3. Train your voice well

Apart from the PowerPoint templates or pamphlets, your voice is the most significant tool in any kind of presentation. You should do warm-up exercises before an important presentation to ensure your tone of voice aligns with the context and objective of the talk. If you want people to take actions based on the ideas you proposed, an aggressive tone wouldn’t help to connect with them. You should try an empathetic yet affirmative tone to convince the audience to trust you.

However, maintaining the same tone throughout the talk will only bore people. So, employ different tones and pace in your speech so that you can take the audience with you as you progress. For examples, a high pitched and fast voice indicates urgency whereas a low and composed voice indicates authority.

4. Focus on transforming, rather than informing

“We are drowning in information, while starving for wisdom”. Your job as a presenter does not end with passing on the information, it’s just a start. Your aim is to give a purpose to the information in hand. You need to understand the pain points of your audience and convince them how they can use the shared idea to make a change.

To do that, you should be clear of the ideas and the perspectives you want to instill in the audience. So, before the presentation, identify the key takeaways of your talk, and direct your presentation to the main ideas. Use analogies from daily life to tap in to their emotions, and make a transformation within them.

5. Prepare well, but be ready for changes

You can prepare all the slides in advance, rehearse the main points many times, warm up your voice, and yet something might go wrong on the day of presentation. For instance, the mic may not work, your file may not open, venue may change, you may forget lines, someone might ask an unexpected question, and so on. How you deal with these unexpected situations tell you how confident and efficient you are.

Remember not to panic and focus on what could be done to proceed with the presentation. To start with, have an extra copy of all relevant files you may need. Reach the venue early and double-check the technical stuff. Memorize the main pointers so that you can pick up from where you lost the lines.

6. Sound confident and authentic

Be it in business, education or politics, you need to sound confident if you want others to listen to you. No matter how innovative or groundbreaking your idea is, if you don’t sound confident about it, no one will buy it. It’s okay to feel nervous about public speaking, but there are ways to overcome it. You can try conscious breathing and wide arm gestures to overcome your nerves.

Another thing to take care is the authenticity of your idea and your presentation. You have a distinct voice and a unique story, so tell your original narrative in your true style. This will make you stand out in a crowd.

7. Work on your body language

A presentation is not merely the delivery of ideas in a structured way or choosing the right words to greet your audience with. It is also, if not mostly, about the way you present yourself in front of the audience; from the way you enter a stage to the way you smile to the way you move around to the hand gestures and different facial expressions you use. Learn different hand gestures that imply different meaning, and practice them to develop your presentation skills.

A firm handshake and a warm smile can go a long way in industrial collaborations. Even before you utter the first word, your body language gives away a lot about you. People use these cues to assess you as you appear in front of a crowd. So, work on them to create a good impression and even better connections.

8. Observe other speakers and learn from feedback

Most people miss out on this. If you observe keenly, there is a lot you can learn from the people you communicate with. The next time you listen to someone talk, notice the good and bad aspects of the presentation. Practice the factors you found interesting and try to avoid the ones you didn’t like. This doesn’t mean you should imitate them; you have to find what excited you about their talk and find your own way to use it in your presentation.

You may like the use of simple analogies or the organization of ideas or the hand gesture. Look for both verbal and non-verbal cues and analyze your own presentation with reference to other great speakers. This helps you to naturally absorb the skills for an effective communication.

9. Add personal stories to sound credible

With internet overflowing with information, there is nothing a person cannot find online apart from the personal stories. So, your narrative determines the success of your presentation. Adding personal touch not only makes you sound credible; it also enhances bond-building with your audience. That will make them want to listen to your version.

Besides the qualifications or expertise you possess in the field, your personal experience can enrich your presentation. But, don’t brag too much or promote yourself since that may distract others. Stick to the story and elements from your personal life that supports your claim.

10. Practice, practice, practice

This goes without saying, yet many speakers overlook the power of practice. Anyone would want to listen to a person who seems like they know what they are speaking. And you will gain the confidence only by practicing the speech several times. Each time, you will find areas where you can improve and working on them gives you the edge to be the best communicator in the room.

Practice in front of a mirror or in front of your friends and improve the subtle details with every rehearsal. Record yourself and watch it later and observe the areas where you can improve. Keep a conversational tone so that you don’t sound mechanical while talking.

Things to do before your presentation

No one has ever entered a stage without their heart racing up. It’s inevitable to have the adrenaline rise before any big event and managing them starts before you enter the stage. Here are the TED talks that focus on the aspects which you can work on before your presentation which will help you deliver a confident and compelling presentation.

The three magic ingredients of amazing presentations by Phil Waknell

A leading expert in presentations, Phil Waknell helps thousands of business leaders, speakers and entrepreneurs daily to design and deliver powerful and engaging presentations. By using the three proposed ingredients wisely in his presentation, Waknell proves that he practices what he preaches.

• The audience, the speaker, and the transformation created in audience: these aspects in harmony can make a presentation successful.
• It’s very important to know your audience , show them you care and tell them why they should care. Understanding the context helps you in designing the presentation well and adding a personal touch will help you deliver it better.
• There’s a major misconception that presentations are all about passing on the information to the audience. In reality, it’s what they feel about and do with the information in hand that matters.

The surprising sec r e t t o speaking with confidence by Caroline Goyder

Caroline Goyder is an author, an actor and a voice coach who also runs a business in helping people find calm and confidence in life. She tells us how our understanding of anatomy can help us improve confidence and delivery by regulating our body parts.

• Everyone has a unique voice and it’s very important to explore different expressions of your voice to use it effectively. Modulating the tone and expression of your voice according to the situation takes practice, which will eventually make you stand out in a crowd.
• Diaphragm is the center of all expressions and it regulates the whole body. Focusing and regulating its movement with each breath would calm you down.
• Inhale with strong emotions and it will reflect on whatever you speak in the outbreath. This way, you can control the tone of your voice by picking the right emotion to convey to the right audience.

Factors to focus on during the presentation

There are many ways you speak to your audience while on stage. This includes the voice tone, hand gestures, facial expressions, choice of words, emotions conveyed and your movements. Here are the TED talks that help you own the stage and eventually the heart of your audience.

How to sound smart in your TED talk by Will Stephen

Will Stephen is an actor and writer who has worked with many magazines including New York Magazine and College Humor. The speaker is using satire and sarcasm to explain the main factors to sound smart while you talk. He unconventionally walks us through the different verbal and non-verbal aspects to take account of.

• This TED talk with no researched topic or message is a clear indication that the way of presentation is often more important than the content of the presentation.
• Use hand gestures and voice modulations to take the audience with you as you build the moment.
• You need to present yourself well, pace yourself properly, and take timely pauses to add beauty to the speech. Showing a well-researched data followed by smart conclusions tells the audience you know what you’re talking about.

Speaking up without freaking out by Matt Abrahams

Matt Abrahams is a coach, author and an educator who is passionate about strategic communication and presentations. In this talk, he addresses the anxiety everyone faces in any social scenario, and gives some tips to overcome the nerves and stay confident.

• Many people experience quick-paced breathing, shaking and sweating right before an important presentation. In such situations, take a deep breath and make use of broad hand gestures to ease the physiological symptoms of anxiety.
• If you are afraid of forgetting the lines, have a mind map so that you adhere to the preferred structure of the talk.
• If you’re concerned about the people judging you, divert the attention to the audience by asking a question or passing over a pamphlet. This not only helps you take the load off; it also keeps the audience engaged in your talk.

How to present to keep y o u r a u d i e nce’s attention by Mark Robinson

Mark Robinson has worked in different software companies as consulting specialists and team lead, and has conquered the fear of public speaking. He gives us insights into how to grab the attention of our audience and to make the presentation more interesting.

• Even the most enthusiastic audience would lose the attention few minutes into the talk. So, your challenge as a speaker is to earn their attention back every time it drops.
• One primary way to do this is by asking questions to the audience. You can pose a question and get answers from the audience, or you can pose a question and answer it yourself as a way to get into the next topic.
• Another tip is to tell stories as a bridge between different topics. You can get them hooked to your story by sharing personal or inspirational stories.
• Be clear about the problem that you’re addressing, and tell your first story of how you encountered this problem why it’s important for the audience. Give them glimpse into how you investigated the problem, and suggest some possible solutions. Then, back it up with valid statements to further prove your claim.

Want to sound like a leader? St a rt by saying your name right by Laura Sicola

Dr. Laura Sicola is a writer, vocal coach and trainer who works in the field of vocal impact training and she talks about how the vocal delivery influences how the message is perceived by the audience.

• One of the most compelling skill of a leader is the executive presence—the ability to project confidence and substance while remaining composed.
• Vocal executive presence determines if the way you sound while declaring a decision enforces it or undermines it. To sound credible, there should be a correlation between your choice of words and their execution.
• Your voice has a persuasive influence on the listener, and you can decide which part of your presentation you want them to remember by focusing on your delivery.
• You can use a higher pitch for the most important clauses, and stick to the diplomatic, funny, friendly, or empathetic tone as the situation demands.

Speak like a leader by Simon Lancaster

Simon Lancaster is one of the leading speechwriters who has worked with politicians, industrial leaders and entrepreneurs. Through this captivating talk, Simon Lancaster shares the secret language of leadership which make the most absurd arguments seem plausible. From ancient times, leaders across different domains like politics, business, literature and art have used the ancient art of rhetoric to highlight the desired parts and translate emotions.

• Rule of three is the most commonly used rhetoric. It exploits the human conditioning to create, pack and memorize everything in a group of three. You can use the magic number of three to draw the attention of your audience when you speak.
• Using repetitive statements is another trick to create the sense of importance in people.
• You can also use balancing statements (e.g., to be or not to be) to make your presentation more convincing. If the sentences sound balanced, we are conditioned to believe that the underlying thinking is balanced.
• The two factors that most leaders use in their speech are exaggeration and rhyme, which could be used wisely to create desired effect. Practicing these in daily life will help you give a killer presentation on the go.

The 110 techniques of communication and public speaking by David JP Phillips

David JP Phillips has spent years observing and analyzing both amateur and professional speakers, and devised different techniques of public speaking. He speaks about various combinations of verbal and non-verbal gestures to include in your presentation.

• Anyone can ace the presentation skills by consistent practice if you know how to gain trust through your gestures and how to display empathy through your words. If your body language is telling a different story than your words, it leaves the audience confused.
• Pacing yourself properly will help the listener to identify what is important. Many people forget the power of silence in a speech and tend to fill the pauses with filer sounds, which will only distract the people listening to you. Use timely pauses and see how you can build anticipation with no words.
• There are minor non-verbal cues that can pique audience’s attention. If you look up for a second and inhale audibly, people will believe you’re about to say something exciting. A pleasant smile in between will help you connect and have a sense of presence on stage.

6 communication truths that everyone should know by Antoni Lacinai

Antoni Lacinai has spent over 25 years studying communication and psychology in different forms, and he mentions the factors to be taken care of to sustain the essence of an effective analog communication. With a fast-paced digital world, the level of empathy, the attention span and the ability to listen are going down and this is a major concern.

• In business or politics, it only takes a few seconds for someone to make an opinion about you. So, it’s very important to display your best traits in the initial moments to form a good impression.
• Ask questions and listen to understand, not to respond. This can help you form a bond of trust with a potential customer, and you can win the business.
• The energy, clarity, and empathy in your speech translates to the audience and has a prolonged effect on how they feel and act.

The magical science of storytelling by David JP Phillips

Having spent years analyzing different speakers, David JP Phillips claims that embracing storytelling in professional realms can build better bonds and foster profitable businesses.

• Stories have the potential to induce hormones and neurotransmitters that will blind you to the objective explanation of something. This is why businesses spend a lot of money, time and energy in sales copy and product description.
• Using suspense and cliff hangers in your story increases the levels of dopamine, which enhances memory, focus and motivation.
• You can induce oxytocin by being empathetic, which helps in gaining trust and building bonds.
• Endorphin could be induced by using humor in your story, which makes people more relaxed, focused and creative.
• A firm that tells better stories have a chance of selling more products since they all trigger our emotional investment towards them. The more emotionally invested we are, the less objective and critical we are.

The power of non-verbal communication by Joe Navarro

Having worked in FBI and interviewed many criminals and spies, Joe Navarro has spent a lot of time learning the non-verbal cues in communication, and he speaks about the limbic system in our brain which does not think, but betrays the deepest emotions via our body language.

• Right from the way you look at someone to the way you carry yourself communicate a lot of information about you. From furrowed foreheads indicating concern to pursed lips indicating stress to wrinkled nose indicating disgust, there are many gestures you can know about a person’s emotion.
• Empathy is the faucet through which you can tap into someone’s emotions and that’ possible only if you pick the right non-verbal gestures to make people comfortable in a conversation. Regardless of the conversation you’re a part of—business conferences to scientific seminars to marriage ceremonies—you need to be empathetic to connect with the other person.
• It’s important to understand their state of mind in order to tune our choice of words and tonality of our voice. Read people in front of you and refine your presentation to instill the right emotion in them.

The 7 secrets of the greatest speakers in history by Richard Greene

Richard Greene strongly believes that every human being can be a great leader whose words can create a tipping point and make a difference for the years to come. After quitting his law practice, Greene has mentored political leaders, business leaders and celebrities across 44 countries. He shares tips to improve presentation skills which can help us become a better speaker and even better leader.

• 41% of the world population is terrified of public speaking because people think of it as a performance, while in reality, it is a conversation.
• Choice of words, tone of voice and body language are important elements to modulate in order to deliver a great presentation.
• Even with the most polished non-verbal cues, you don’t add any value if you don’t have a compelling message to convey.
• It all comes down to how you share about your authentic passion and trigger the sensory organs so that people connect with you, and feel included in the conversation.

H ow to speak with impact by Peter Hopwood

Peter Hopwood works with startups, business leaders and firms as a communications and presence coach. In this talk, he tells about polishing the small details that can improve the presentation skills.

• As a speaker, your vision is to create impact with your words and make it worth the time people have invested in you.
• Before you start to speak, you need to manage your nerves and regulate your breathing to sound calm and composed. You need to feel good in order to sound good.
• The gestures and the stance in front of a crowd tell them a lot about you even before you have uttered a word and you have a window of time to catch their attention. Keep your legs steady and open your arms and move around as you speak to establish credibility.
• Unpredictability is one of the most important factors in a great presentation. So, take them surprise by both verbal and non-verbal actions.

How to manipulate emotions by Timon Krause

Timon Krause, active in the area of mindreading, talks about anchoring or conditioned response in human beings and how you can use it to influence their decisions.

• An anchor is a specific cue that induces a predictable response. Not only you have the ability to control those cues to trigger the desired response, but you can also set up a new trigger response system at will.
• Human brains recognize pattern and remember the past decisions when a cue had appeared, and use this learned response in a new similar situation. This is helpful in not making the same mistakes over time. The fascinating part about this is that simply imagining a cue can stimulate the same response in a person.
• Many speakers use conditioned response system to make connections with the audience. Often in business, you have to manipulate the emotions by identifying where in the marketing funnel the user is on. By making a smart cue, you can turn your potential clients into customers and your customers turn into loyal users.

Talk nerdy to me by Melissa Marshall

Melissa Marshall talks about the huge gap between the people doing science and receiving the impacts of the scientific and industrial studies. She shares some tips to breakdown complex scientific jargons to accessible information to the public.

• You can either define the jargons using simple terms or eliminate the jargon altogether if it’s not necessary to talk about the topic.
• Many people do it wrong by dumbing the audience down and refraining from giving them the essential information they need.
• A good place is to start is by telling them how your research impacts their lives, and get them interested in the story ahead. Instead of distracting them with tedious data and statistics, tell them a story connecting the major results and prospects of your work in a language that is accessible to them.

How to have a good conversation by Celeste Headlee

Having worked as a host, reporter and correspondent, Celeste Headlee addresses the inability of people to listen to each other at a ground level and slowly builds up on how to have a good conversation. She stresses that the most wanted skill of this century is the ability to sustain a coherent and confident conversation.

• What often goes wrong in the business or industrial fields is the urge to convince and impose our claims on others without having a conversation. It’s important for both parties to feel inspired, engaged and understood.
• It starts with being genuinely interested in other people. While you are proposing a business idea, think about the users and find out what they expect from the service. If disagreements arise, pose open ended questions and listen to the other while they speak.
• Be present in the moment, try not to repeat yourself and stop seeing every conversation as a promotional opportunity. Understand that people don’t care about the exact details, they are here for the story.

Body language, the power is in the palm of your hands by Allan Pease

Allan Pease is a professor of psychology who specializes in human relationships and connections. He speaks about creating a good impression in the first few minutes of interaction.

• The first form of interaction in any form of professional meeting happens through a handshake, and it influences our judgment about the person. It is best is to have a firm hand and give the same pressure you receive.
• Our palms have the most number of neural connections with the brain. Hence, how we use it in a presentation sends out significant signals to the other person.
• Whether you are using the front or back side of your palm during hand gestures makes a difference to how people respond. By using a trivial fact that open palms gain trust and pointed fingers repel people, you can improve your presentation and build meaningful connections with the audience.

Communicate for success by Michael C Webb

Michael C Webb, through his personal story of being in the recruiting business reasserts the importance of communication skills in any kind of career.

• If there are two people who meet the prescribed criteria for a job, the better communicator among them would get hired for the job. If you have an edge for effective communication, all other skills and degrees could be acquired over time.
• Now imagine you have a great business idea or a scientific proposal, the way you pitch it determines whether it will get approved or not. No matter how fantastic your idea is, if you can’t convince them through your presentation, you are in no luck.
• It’s very important to acknowledge your weak points and work on them to be a better speaker people want to listen to. He strongly puts across the message that resumes don’t get the job, people get the job.

The beauty of data visualization by David McCandless

We are loaded with information from different sources every single day, and visualizing the data is an efficient way to perceive and recollect it. The speaker David McCandless states that designing data in a way where the patterns and connections are visible allows us to stay clear of unwanted information.

• We know that all the modern-day presentations in business, industrial and educational sectors are aided by audio-visual tools, where they present their ideas or findings in slides.
• Our eyes are exquisitely sensitive to the variation in patterns and we remember the information with the mind’s eye. It’s important to pick the right color theme and font sizes to make the presentation more memorable.
• You should use right labels and segregate the scattered data neatly into tables or columns so that you can come back to it at a later stage. It’s difficult to process and recollect absolute information compared to the data comparing two or more similar entities.

How to speak so that people want to listen by Julian Treasure

Julian Treasure starts by stating four cornerstones to stand on when you communicate: honesty, authenticity, integrity, and love. He then speaks about regulating the different qualities of your voice to be a better presenter.

• Our voice is the toolbox to open the corner stones to give an impactful presentation. Find the register of your voice that brings out different responses from people. Speaking from the chest gives a depth to your voice, which is often associated with power and hence can be used to persuade people.
• Another thing to take care of is the timbre; the way your voice feels. We prefer to listen to voices that are rich, warm and smooth. You can play with different pitch and volume to break the monotony.
• You can time pauses and regulate the pace conveniently to impart the desired meaning to the audience, and use some exercises to warm up your voice so that people can’t stop applauding after you.

Voice branding: How your voice shapes your communication image by Wendy LeBorgne

The voice pathologist Wendy LeBrogne talks about the aspects of voice that gets people hired for a job or approved for a deal. For anyone, the voice is the most important element of your personal brand and polishing it regularly will help you for any kind of conversation.

• Intensity of your voice is often perceived in terms of how loud you are, and depending on the context, people pass judgments on you.
• It’s important to have the right intonation to bring out the interest and curiosity in the listener.
• Lately, there has been a trend of using upspeak; ending every statement with a question which is highly looked down in the professional world.
• How you pace yourself gives the audience an idea of how passionate you in what you deliver. Depending on the pitch of the voice, peoeple decide if you’re nonchalant or serious about the matter. Finally, the clarity of speech and hoarseness contribute to the voice quality.

Own your behavior , master your communication, determine your success by Louise Evans

A coach, a facilitator, and a trainer, Louise Evans talks about how the choices that we make have a direct impact on the relations we build and the conversations we have.

• In every situation, you have a choice to attack and judge the other person, to judge and degrade yourself, to observe and be conscious of the situation, to introspect and be aware of yourself, or to find ways to connect and be empathetic with the other person.
• In both personal and professional relations, empathy and genuine curiosity are most important to build a meaningful connection.
• If you can see your potential client only as a bag of money, you won’t benefit from the interaction in a fundamental level. But if you can look at them as people with their own ideas and perception of the world, it becomes easier to empathize and connect with them.
• The key to success in any enterprise is to make a calculated choice based on rational thoughts.

Connect and inspire using your tone of voice by Janina Heron

Janina Heron works as a voice consultant, and educates about mastering our unique sounds. This talk is about understanding how we are wired to respond to different tones of voice in different manner.

• We pick up on tone clues and use them to impart meaning more than on words. Tone tells us if we can trust them or if they are a potential threat to us.
• Voice coaches and great leaders believe that training your voice can improve the way you communicate and hence build trust with the people you are interacting with.
• The simplest way to train your voice is to regulate breathing since voice is audible air.
• By incorporating the feelings of warmth, acceptance and compassion in your voice, you can win over anyone even in the fact-driven debates. Your voice should brim with passion to convey the emotion across, and when you do that in presentations, people immediately trust whatever you tell them.

Think fast, talk smart by Matt Abrahams

An expert on interpersonal communication and presentations, Matt Abrahams states that how we communicate depends on the approach we take, the audience we talk to, the context we find ourselves in and the structure we follow.

• It helps if we see every opportunity to speak as an opportunity to express ourselves and to build strong connections. Focus on what the audience expect to hear from you as opposed to what you want to tell them.
• While observing the context of the talk, look what time of the day it is and try to resonate with the energy of the room.
• You should change the way you deliver according to the location; the way you talk to a virtual audience is much different from how you talk to a live audience.
• Humans perceive information better if it is structured. Having a structure in your presentation helps both speaker and the audience to remember it later.

The art of effective communication by Marcus Alexander Velazquez

Marcus Alexander Velazquez is a public speaker, voice-over artist, actor and an author, and states that an effective communication takes place when the information is perceived well by the audience to the point where they can share it to another person.

• A trait of a good speaker includes stumbling upon questions or remarks you didn’t anticipate and handling them well with confidence. If you’re in the middle of a conference and you need to redirect your speech to bring the audience’s attention back to you, following the script would not work. You have to adjust to the changes and go with the flow.
• Since no two people are the same, you cannot be adamant about your choice of words or the gestures. If you want to have a meaningful conversation, you need to navigate the words and questions in a way put both parties at ease.
• Speak with the intention to deliver value and information, rather than wanting to be heard. Understanding you could be wrong and being open to new perspectives make the interaction fruitful.

Can you improve presentation skills after your presentation?

So, you delivered an amazing presentation and connected well with the audience. What next?

Remember learning never stops. So, keep looking for ways to improve your presentation by getting feedback from people you trust. Being open to criticism can help you in the long run. Get a copy of your presentation from the organizers and watch it repeatedly and note down the aspects that need polishing. Here is a TED talk that tell you how effective feedback mechanism is, and why we should embrace it both hands.

How to use others’ feedback to learn and grow by Sheil Heen

Sheila Heen works with different industrial leaders and organizations to coach them about handling tough conversations at work. She discusses the psychological factors and triggered responses of giving and receiving feedbacks, and how we can learn faster and grow better if we are open to feedbacks.

• We find it hard to accept feedback because it’s a competition between a need to grow and a need to be accepted the way we are. The key is not to take it personally and to focus on learning.
• Actively seek feedbacks from peers and friends who can give you honest opinions. Ask specific questions and find out things you can improve on.
• Don’t judge yourself for the shortcomings. Stay patient, work on yourself and come out brighter on the other side.

If you watched the above TED talks, you will observe that many people speak about the same topic in a unique angle and style. Every speaker added a personal anecdote to amplify the message they were trying to convey. Some shared the moments of failure and how they bounced back so that audience could relate and empathize. None of them spoke the same; each had their own voice, their own story, their own tone.

Every human being is a storyteller by nature. It’s sad how many stories remain untold either because of the lack of tools or the lack of confidence. It’s very important to fight all the insecurities and present ourselves in our most confident self to progress in both personal and professional life.

Find your unique voice and tell your story.

At SlideBazaar, we help you create engaging and memorable presentations. Choose from our collection of professional templates or opt for our custom design services for a personalized touch. Your presentations deserve to be elevated to new heights, and we’re here to help you achieve just that!

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11 ways to prepare: How to give a TED Talk

Nancy Duarte

I’ve given all types of talks . And while all presentations take an investment to make them effective, the creation of a high-stakes, beautifully staged TED Talk often proves to be especially difficult. It takes work to craft the talk, and then even more to make the delivery sound natural.

How long are TED Talks?

A TED Talk is 18 minutes long — a length that was chosen by TED organizers based both on  neuroscience and strategy . They understood that 18 minutes was long enough for a speaker to flesh out an idea, but short enough that a listener could take in, digest, and understand all of the important information.

TED Talk format: What makes preparing for a TED Talk so tough?

TED curator  Chris Anderson explains :

“The 18-minute length works much like the way Twitter forces people to be disciplined in what they write. By forcing speakers who are used to going on for 45 minutes to bring it down to 18, you get them to really think about what they want to say. What is the key point they want to communicate? It has a clarifying effect. It brings discipline.”

In reality, creating a talk that is ONLY 18 minutes, instead of 45, is tougher than you might imagine. Woodrow Wilson summed up the process of giving a short, but effective speech best when he said:

“If I am to speak ten minutes, I need a week for preparation; if fifteen minutes, three days; if half an hour, two days; if an hour, I am ready now.”

Not only is the editing process for a TED Talk format (or an 18-minute speech) challenging, but the rehearsal process takes a lot of time, too. In fact, I discovered that the amount of rehearsal time required is inversely proportionate to the length of the talk.

True story: For the last 18-minute TEDx Talk I gave, it took me approximately 18 hours to rehearse.

Nancy Duarte’s TEDx Talk: The secret structure of great talks

How to do a TED Talk that gets a lot of views

While I’ve given a few TED Talks and TEDx Talks in my time, my firm has helped multiple TED speakers prepare for the stage. Whether it was for their TED Talk speech or just making sure folks sound smart in their TED talks, we’ve compiled a list for anyone to get started on their TED Talk journey.

Here are 11 preparation tips for how to give a TED Talk that fits within the TED Talk duration and results in a presentation that’s as effective as possible.

1. Make a TED Talk outline

When making your TED Talk, the structure of your presentation matters. It’s actually what my original TED Talk was about, and I’ve since produced a book and training workshop on it called Resonate ®.

From there, you can set up your slides, and begin to outline your TED Talk speech.

2. Print your current slide deck as 9-up handouts

You’ve made your slide deck, but now it’s time to prepare them for the TED stage . The  9-up format  is conveniently the same size as the smallest sticky note. When I prepared for  my TEDx Talk , I arranged and re-arranged my message onto sticky notes — adding sticky notes until I was happy with the flow.

If I’m whittling down my talk from, say, a 40-minute talk, I make sure I cut at least half of my slides. Keep trimming and trimming until you feel you are close to 18 minutes. During this process, it becomes clear that your Big Idea ™ can be communicated in a succinct, distilled manner.

3. Solicit feedback

Assemble a handful of people who are effective presenters that you trust to give honest, unfiltered feedback on your narrative and slides. Verbally run the ideas by these folks (it doesn’t have to be a formal presentation). Have them look at all the slides at once so they give feedback on the “whole,” not the parts. And have them give you feedback on the content you’ve chosen, asking whether they think it will resonate with your audience.

Consider doing this a handful of times. When I did my TEDx Talk, I repeated this step four times, twice with my External Communications Manager and twice with my company President. After they added their insights, I was ready to have the slides designed .

4. Rehearse with a great (honest) communicator

Choose someone you trust and also that understands how to give a TED Talk, and rehearse with them. In my case, I rehearsed with an Executive Duarte Speaker Coach . She would say honest things like:

• “When you say it that way, it can be interpreted differently than you intended.”
• “When you use that term, you come across as derogatory.”
• “I thought that when you said it last time it was better, you said … ”

She worked hard tracking phrases and rounds of what was said. When it comes to preparing for a TED Talk, honesty is the best policy. Make sure your communication coach is not afraid to speak up because 18 minutes goes by fast! You love your material and you want to include all of it, but if you want to master how to give a TED Talk successfully, you need someone you trust to help you murder your darlings .

5. Close the loop

A lot of times, as the presenter, you know your material so well that you think you’re making each key point clear. Here’s a tip: You might not be. Your speaker coach should make sure you are telling people why . It’s the “why” around our ideas that make them spread, not the “how.” Articulate the why so your audience understands what’s magnificent about your Big Idea™.

6. Practice with your clock counting up

The first few times, rehearse with your clock timer counting up. That’s because if you go over, you need to know how much you’re over. Do NOT be looking at the clock at this time. Have your presentation coach look at it because you don’t want to remember any of the timestamps in your mind. Finish your entire talk and then have your coach tell you how much you need to trim.

Keep practicing until you’re consistently within 18 minutes. Your executive speaker coach should be able to tell you to trim 30 seconds here or add 15 seconds there so that your content is weighted toward the most important information.

7. Practice with your clock counting down

Once you’re within the timeframe, begin practicing with your clock timer counting down. This is a great strategy to really maximize your presentation rehearsal time . You need to set a few places in your talk where you benchmark a time stamp.

• Calculate where you need to be in the content in six-minute increments.
• You should know roughly where you should be at 6, 12, and 18 minutes.
• You should know which slide you should be on and what you’re saying so that you will know immediately from the stage if you’re on time or running over.

8. Be noteworthy

Your executive speaker coach is there to jot down what you say well and what you don’t. They should work from a printout of the slides and write phrases you deliver effectively so they can be added to your script. They should help you capture phrases so you can type them into your notes. It goes without saying, but with an 18-minute time limit, they will also make sure you remove those pesky filler words , too!

9. Don’t be camera shy

Videotape some of your final practices. It doesn’t have to be a high-end video setup — I’ve used my iPhone camera on a tripod in a hotel room before. You just need to feel like something’s at stake. Videotaping yourself helps you get used to looking at the camera, and you can review the video to look at your stage presence, eye contact, gestures , plus identify any expressions that need modification.

Also, if you do an especially good practice run, you can go back and listen to the audio and add the best snippets to your slide notes. The TED audience has only about 1,000 people in it, but the TED.com audience will have millions. So, talk to the camera like there are humans on the other side of it.

10. Do one more full-timed rehearsal right before you walk on the TED Talk stage

Right before you go on stage (we’re talking the day of), do one more timed rehearsal. This will ensure that you know the speech and that you’re well aware of where you might need to slow down or speed up.

11. Have two natural ending points in your TED Talk speech

I gave a TED-style talk in India with a head cold. Despite all my rehearsals and prep, I knew I’d possibly lose track of timing. To prevent this, give your talk two natural ending points. Pick two natural places you could stop in your talk, then demarcate those as possible endings. That way, if you’re running way over, you can stop at your first ending point, and while your audience may miss out on some inspirational or emotional ending, they’ll have heard all the most important information that matters.

How to give a TED Talk: The easy way

Preparing for a big stage moment doesn’t have to be a TED Talk. It can be a meeting with investors , or it can be an hour-long keynote on a really big stage. If you want a pressure-tested solution to nail your high-stakes moment, hire a Duarte Speaker Coach . They can help you with both your speech outline, delivery, and even overcoming a stutter.

And if you’d rather take things slow, an award-winning public speaking workshop like Captivate ™ is your best choice.

This article was originally published on April 5, 2018. It has been updated in August 2024 for relevancy.

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Captivate™

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Up-level your speaking skills with one-on-one support. We’ll help you rehearse your talk, polish your presence, and transform your message delivery.

Presentation Principles™

Learn presentation basics

Follow a step-by-step method to write compelling stories, amplify ideas visually, and present with confidence while learning at your own pace.

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7 TED Talks on how to improve your presentations

It’s a hard truth of the digital age: Capturing and keeping another person’s attention is getting more difficult. While the empirical evidence on the average person's attention span during a presentation is limited, the phrase "death by PowerPoint" rings all too true. IT leaders know from experience that audiences lack patience for ineffective speakers. That’s why it’s more important than ever for all of us to be thoughtful about how to deliver information.

[ Which IT roles are vanishing? Read our article,  4 dying IT jobs . ]

Thankfully for CIOs and other leaders in training, there are abundant tips from skilled presenters on how to elevate your performance before your next appearance – on stage at a conference, before the board or executive team, or even in front of your own organization. This no-nonsense advice will help you win – and keep – your audience.

1. The secret structure of great talks

Speaker: Nancy Duarte

Why do we sit with rapt attention listening to a compelling story yet find ourselves nodding off during most presentations? Communication expert Nancy Duarte spent time digging into the best stories from history, cinema, and literature – and also suffering through some of the worst presentations she could get her hands on – to explore the differences and come up with a winning model for great presentations. In this talk, Duarte explores the secrets and structures of the greatest communicators and their public speaking efforts – from Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech to Steve Job’s public unveiling of the iPhone. She shares with the audience the common storytelling structure utilized by compelling presenters that you can apply to your next effort.

2. The beauty of data visualization

Speaker: David McCandless

Data is the lifeblood of IT, the business, and many an IT leader presentation. But on its own, data can be lifeless – or worse, ineffective or misleading.

British data journalist David McCandless is skilled at transforming complex data sets into engaging data visualizations that are not only lovely to look at but also instantly bring to life the stories within the data. Data is not the new oil, he says, but the new soil – “a fertile, creative medium” – if you know how to manipulate and design it. McCandless shares his tips for visualizing information so that an audience can see the patterns and connections that matter.

3. How to speak so that people want to listen

Speaker: Julian Treasure

The first thing IT leaders consider when preparing for a presentation might be the visuals, the words, or even the best outfit to wear – all important components. But they may be overlooking one of the most important instruments in their toolkits: Their voices. Sound and communication expert (and five-time TED speaker) Julian Treasure argues that what you say may be less important than how you say it, and outlines some of the most important aspects of vocal delivery.

4. Your body language may shape who you are

Speaker: Amy Cuddy

With nearly 50 million views, social psychologist Amy Cuddy’s now well-known TED Global 2012 Talk can help IT leaders harness another important aspect of presenting: body language. Her talk is not simply about how body language impacts how others see us, but also how we see ourselves. In this video, IT leaders can learn all about the “power pose” – a way of standing confidently like Superman or Wonder Woman. While there was some criticism of the science behind Cuddy’s research about power positions and their impact on hormones, which she has since refuted, IT leaders can try the posing advice out for themselves before stepping on the stage or into the boardroom.

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How to create and deliver a powerful presentation introduction inspired by the most watched TED talks

Moments before each presentation, the air is thick with expectations. The audience is bustling with curiosity and unuttered thoughts, waiting for you, the speaker, to break the silence with a good presentation introduction. Within those first few minutes, the audience is hanging on your every word, gauging whether or not the rest of your presentation is worth listening to.

Have you heard of the 20-minute rule for public speaking ? Or the idea that we only have 7 seconds to make a strong first impression ? Regardless of the specific time stamp, there’s a reason why so much importance is put on that initial encounter between speaker and audience. It’s the moment when the audience is naturally most engaged and when the speaker has the opportunity to set the tone for the rest of the presentation.

The presentation introduction has three goals: to get the audience hooked, to identify the main topic and core message and to give the audience an overview of the points that the presentation will cover. It is the most important part of any talk and the most difficult hurdle to overcome for a speaker. But it doesn’t have to be. Featuring some of the most watched TED talks, we’ll walk you through how to create and deliver to a powerful introduction. Keep reading.

How to grasp your audience’s attention

No big deal: this is only the moment when, as a speaker, you convince your audience that your presentation is worth listening to. Nervous? You shouldn’t be. Grasping your audience’s attention doesn’t require you to make an entrance riding a carriage pulled by a white horse. (—although that would surely do the trick) Keep in mind that, at this point, the audience members are still naturally attentive. So keep it simple, and keep it human .

Start a conversation

Think of it as a conversation. Like the simplest of human interactions, all it takes is a simple “Hello. How are you?”

In the most watched TED talk of all time “Do schools kill creativity?”, speaker Ken Robinson starts his talk with just that, a: “Good morning. How are you?”.

Much like a conversation, he greets the audience and proceeds to talk about the TED talks that came before his. He creates a rapport with the audience by talking about an experience that he shared with them. Drawing from that shared experience, he humorously introduces his topic: education.

Involve your audience

If Ken Robinson’s hilarious conversation starters aren’t for you, try creating a rapport with your audience by getting them to do something. Being interactive with your audience is a surefire way to get their attention. Also, involving them in your presentation has the added benefit of increasing their retention rate.

In the TED talk “Your body language shapes who you are” that has over 40 million views, Amy Cuddy kickstarts her presentation introduction by asking the audience to take a minute to assess their posture. “How many of you are sort of making yourselves smaller?” she asks, acknowledging what many of the audience members are doing. She creates a rapport with the audience by acknowledging their behavior and eventually connecting this behavior to her own topic: body language.

Try something similar in your presentation introduction. Ask your audience to stand if they’ve been sitting for a while. Ask them to introduce themselves to the person they’re sitting next to.

Ask a question

Simon Sinek opts for something arguably more classic: asking a rhetorical question. In his TED talk called “How great leaders inspire action” that has raked over 30 million views, he starts off by asking: “How do you explain when things don’t go as we assume? Or better, how do you explain when others are able to achieve things that seem to defy all of the assumptions?”.

He then continues by citing a few references that the audience is familiar with, namely Apple and Martin Luther King. The question he asks are simple: “Why him?” “Why are they different?”. He creates a rapport with the audience by inviting them to ponder the answers to the questions that he is asking, albeit rhetorically.

Introduce your topic by asking the questions that your presentation is going to answer.

Tell a story

In “The Power of Vulnerability” talk, which is the fourth most watched TED talk after Robinson’s, Cuddy’s and Sinek’s, Brené Brown begins her presentation with an anecdote. She tells the story of how, a few years back, an event planner was struggling to sell her title as “researcher” at a speaking event, arguing that it sounded too boring to attract an audience. Brené Brown told the story lightheartedly, connecting to the human side of the audience by explaining her personal struggle with the situation.

Appeal to the human side of your audience by drawing from your own experiences. Talk about a struggle that you overcame, a flaw that you are trying to work on, an experience that changed your life. The power of storytelling is that the audience doesn’t need to experience exactly the same thing for them to relate to your story. Sharing your own experiences encourages them to draw from their own, thus helping them grasp your message better as they relate it to something that they have experienced themselves.

Introduce your core message

Contrary to the dramatic structure where the story gradually builds up to a climax, your core message needs to be introduced in your presentation introduction. The audience’s attention curve when it comes to presentations tends to plummet shortly after the introduction, so you want to deliver the main message while you still have their attention.

Identifying the main topic and the core message of your presentation is as straightforward as that — telling the audience what your presentation is all about. Your presentation introduction needs to convey the core findings of your study, your eureka moment, your discovery or your core belief.

Ken Robinson, Amy Cuddy, Simon Sinek and Brené Brown all revealed the main idea of their talk within the first 3 minutes of their presentation introduction. Julian Treasure’s talk is no different. Within 3 minutes, he has outlined the main points of his talk by citing the “Seven deadly sins of speaking”. Within 3 minutes, the audience knows what they are about to sit through, making it easy for them to decide whether or not the rest is worth listening to.

Implement the same principle in your presentation introduction. Hook your audience within the first few minutes and drop the most important part of your talk while they’re still taking the bait.

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Courtney E. Martin hosts a session called “The 19th Minute,” and shared valuable insight on how to give a talk that has real impact. Photo: Marla Aufmuth/TED

Sharing an idea isn’t like snapping your fingers — things don’t just instantly change. But as more people hear an idea over time, it can trickle into people’s thinking — and shifts, both subtle and extreme, can happen as a result. In a TEDWomen session called “The 19th Minute,” host Courtney E. Martin invited several guests to talk about what happened after they gave their 18-minute TED Talk — what changed, as well as what didn’t.

Deborah Rhodes spoke about the momentum her TEDWomen talk has built for using Molecular Breast Imaging rather than traditional mammography to screen for breast cancer under certain conditions. She still has a long way to go, she says, because, “mammography is very entrenched—culturally and medically.” Krista Donaldson talked about how her TEDWomen 2013 talk about a low-cost prosthetic knee led to more than 200 requests from 48 countries — and how the translation of her talk into more than 20 languages helped create that global impact.

After this, Martin shared some tips that she’s used as both a speaker and a coach. We thought they were too good not to pass on to you.

• Be unapologetically you . Martin warns speakers not to try to give the proverbial TED Talk. “The worst talks in the world are where someone is trying to give that talk they’ve seen before,” says Martin. “It’s fine to study your favorite TED Talks, but you don’t want to replicate them. Don’t try to be inspirational. Try to be you.” .
• Don’t do it all. Do one kickass thing . Martin looks at having a time limit as “a huge gift.” When she spoke at the first TEDWomen , she was given nine minutes to share her take on feminism. “It was the most important writing exercise I have ever done,” she says. “Knowing I had nine minutes to say what mattered most to me, it made me get absolutely clear on what I actually wanted to say.” .
• Story is queen . Instead of simply passing on information, Martin suggests thinking about how to reveal it through stories. “Stories are how we process information,” she says. “They’re how we get excited about things.” .
• Get sensual . When telling stories, it’s tempting to go abstract to allow them to apply to all those watching. But Martin urges speakers in the opposite direction. “Be highly specific and sensory. Give the smell, the taste, the feelings, the textures,” she says. “What’s so interesting is that people transpose their own experience onto that.” .
• Mind the power of threes . Three is the archetypical number for a reason, and Martin suggests thinking in trios to build arguments. “If you are trying to do too much, think about: are there three things that are most important?” she says. .
• Jargon is death . “That’s a little strongly worded, but it’s how I feel,” says Martin. “We spend a lot of time talking to people in our fields. But when we talk to people outside of the club, jargon is distancing. It tells us, ‘This talk is not for me.’” Martin has a clever tip for how to break through the jargon wall: Write your talk as a letter to someone who you care about, but who isn’t in your field. It can help you peel back technicality in a warm way. .
• Surprise your audience . “Give the counterintuitive conclusion,” says Martin. “People turn off when they think they’re hearing something too familiar. Jolt them awake.” .
• Be the (vulnerable) hero . “People don’t want to hear about the perfect person,” says Martin. “They love the person who has discovered something on a journey.” A few examples: Jill Bolte Taylor sharing her experience of having a stroke . Aimee Mullins revealing her feelings on the word ‘disabled.’ Martin urges speakers to reveal their flaws, wounds and even failures. .
• Do something scary before your talk . “Get that nervous energy out before you’re on stage,” says Martin. For her, that meant giving her talk as if it were the real thing in front of a writers group where she knew different members would be highly critical. “By the time I got to the stage, I wasn’t nearly as afraid.” .
• Stumble as yourself . Martin suggests a subtle re-aligning of what it means to give a successful talk. “The goal is not to give a perfect talk — perfect is boring,” she says. “What’s inspiring is a genuine person, sharing what they’re passionate about. Walk off the stage with your authentic integrity.” .
• Do what makes you feel badass . In a short Q&A session, an audience member asked what to wear and how to use body language. “Wear something that makes you feel badass,” says Martin. “If it’s boots, wear boots. If it’s stilettos, wear stilettos.” As for how to move, Martin says to do what feels best to you — just do it with purpose. “If you need to pace, pace intentionally,” she says. .
• Be okay with being scared . In the Q&A, another audience member asked Martin how she encourages speakers to deal with their fear of public speaking. “It’s people who are the most freaked out that bring that great, raw energy,” says Martin. “The biggest fear people have about public speaking is being exposed as imperfect — they’re afraid of showing their wounds, of stumbling on lines. But those are the things that an audience relates to. As a coach, my job is to steer people toward a talk that feels bravely genuine.”
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Present TED-style: Six Things TED Presenters Do That You Can Copy And Use In Your Next Presentation

It’s a harsh reality of the digital age: capturing and maintaining another person’s attention is becoming increasingly difficult. While there is minimal factual information on the typical person’s attention span during a presentation, savvy presenters are well aware that audiences are an impatient lot. As a result, it is more vital than ever for every one of us to think carefully about how we convey information.

Certain types of business presentations provide a chance for executives to demonstrate their knowledge while also providing audience members with useful and exciting information. TED and TEDx talks (which are organized locally and independently) have come to symbolize the peak of high-caliber business presentations.

• What is a TED Talk?
• Understand Your Audience 
• Explore The Venue Where You Will Be Delivering Your Presentation
• Connect With Your Audience
• Explain One Concept Per Slide
• Keep The Presentation Content Precise
• Inspire Your Audience
• A Few TED Style Template Examples

What is a TED Talk? 

TED Talks are brief, powerful presentations of ideas presented by experienced speakers at TED and TEDx conferences across the world. What distinguishes TED Talks is that they are generally recognized as highly impactful, motivating, inspiring and insightful. These presentations are easily digestible due to their brief nature. Their carefully selected speakers give them credibility.

A TED Talk is 18 minutes long, a duration set by TED organizers based on neuroscience as well as strategy. They recognized that 18 minutes was long enough for a speaker to flesh out a topic while remaining short enough for a listener to take in, assimilate, and understand all of the crucial information.

The concept of TED Talks was developed in 1984 during the inaugural TED conference. The TED acronym refers to the initial focus of these lectures, which was Technology, Entertainment, and Design. 

The first TED conference established a good tone, with talks on the compact disc (a novel idea at the time), the e-book, and other cutting-edge technical concepts. The second TED conference was conducted in 1990 and was so well received that it became an annual event.

6 Tips Inspired By Ted Talks To Give A Killer Presentation

TED Talks are so well-done that they almost symbolize authority and perfection. Let’s look at what makes them so appealing from an audience’s viewpoint.

1. Understand Your Audience 

This is critical for maximizing the effectiveness of any communication. To effectively communicate your “big idea,” you must first grasp what your audience understands and cares about. Then customize your presentation accordingly.

If you’re giving a presentation to a new or relatively unfamiliar audience, there are several quick ways to collect information, such as researching and reading a pertinent Reddit discussion or having a quick interaction with someone more knowledgeable.

Most TED speakers do substantial research about their audience, sometimes calling them out by name. This makes them fully grounded in the reality of the stage they are standing on.

2. Explore The Venue Where You Will Be Delivering Your Presentation

As a thumb rule, the background of your slides should match the room in which you’re speaking. In TED talks, typically, large arenas are frequently used. The hall is darkened so that the visual focus is on what’s on stage. 

Matching the backdrops of your slides to the details of your location can be quite successful, drawing attention to the presentation’s content rather than what is happening around

Keep the viewing angles and distance of the audience in consideration as well. You want people to be on the edge of their seats, but not because they’re squinting to make out your tiny text.

3. Connect With Your Audience

It’s tempting to imagine that the value of a TEDx talk is in the performance. After all, TED talks are regarded for being both motivating and engaging, and TED presenters are at the pinnacle of their profession. However, focusing on the performance overlooks what truly distinguishes these presentations: the connection.

Consider your favorite TED talks and why you hold them in such high regard. I’m guessing your solution has something to do with the speaker’s passion, conviction, and ability to connect with their audience. This is something that successful corporate presentations have in common with TED-style talks. So, how can you ensure that your next presentation connects with your audience?

Creating a connection involves many aspects- an important one is an authenticity. An authentic business presentation is not a spontaneous act. It is anything but. It takes careful thinking. Authenticity necessitates dedication to writing and editing until the content is perfect. Delivery is important in addition to content. Authentic presenters, in addition to their content, pay close attention to how they physically come across to their audience: their facial gestures, hand movements- everything is in focus.  

With proper preparation, they reach a point when they are able to speak to the audience as if they were chatting to a dear friend over a favorite beverage; the real them shines through. This level of authenticity generates connection, trust and leaves a lasting impact on your audience.

Yet, it is not necessary to have everything flawless for a good presentation. It all comes down to being prepared, wanting to connect, and sharing frankly with people. Remember to practice aloud to get there!

4. Explain One Concept Per Slide

To effectively deliver a message, your audience must be able to focus on and “understand it.” Instead of relying on a single slide to convey many concepts. It may even be appropriate to spread a single notion across numerous presentations. This permits the speaker to focus on it for a longer period without losing momentum.

From an audience’s perspective, less is more. If you need a reference for yourself, use the speaker notes by all means but keep the slide content to a minimum so the audience can focus and comprehend.

5. Keep The Presentation Content Precise

The purpose of the slides is to assist the presenter, not to steal the thunder from the presenter. The speaker should be the center of attention. Consider using single visuals and/or a few sentences rather than phrases. Consider the phrase over the sentence. You don’t want your audience to begin reading and then quit listening.

The content should be supported by the slide content rather than being relayed by it. Everything on your slides should have a purpose. There will be no placeholders, watermarks, headers, or footers without good reason. If you haven’t already decided, utilizing your normal business presentation template is generally not a smart choice.

6. Inspire Your Audience

Finally, as a corporate communicator, you may not be as big a known authority on your subject as a TED speaker. Yet you can get attention with your clarity, drive, and enthusiasm.

Regardless of the topic or how many times you’ve given a presentation on it, it’s critical that you express your thoughts with excitement. Keep in mind that your audience will pick up on your cues. You can bet your audience will be bored if you appear uninterested. To present a memorable message, you must demonstrate your passion for the subject.

Once again, this best practice is about cultivating the mentality that will enable you to be a good presenter. Your passion for your subject fuels an interesting, real delivery that will resonate with listeners.

A Few TED Style Template Examples:

Lamp Business Strategy

Source: Lamp Business Strategy by SlideUpLift

30 60 90 Day Plan

Source: 30 60 90 Day Plan by SlideUpLift

Corporate Highlights

Source: Corporate Highlights by SlideUpLift

The Bottom Line

Some people find public speaking easy, while others find it difficult. You can create a great impact with the correct framework, planning, slides, and practice. The world is inspired by TED Talks. They are a source of inspiration for our most creative and innovative minds.

TED has taught us many lessons: For example, Sharing data and numbers doesn’t have to be boring, Storytelling has and will always work, Once the lights are on, it is all about the presenter and their connection with the audience. Nothing else matters. So let your genuineness and enthusiasm flow through as you present. People will feel inspired and educated.

Use these TED talks to improve your presenting skills and become interested in sharing your knowledge. Be brave and speak up. In case you are looking for TED Style templates, check out the vast collection of free PowerPoint templates to get started.  Your presentation will be worth sharing as well.

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20 Oct, 2022 | SlideUpLift

SlideUpLift Fixes Gaps In Google Slides To Make Your Next Presentation a Breeze

Google Slides is an excellent tool for creating corporate presentations. After all, Google Slides is free to use; there is no software to install, no data loss, and it includes

1 Feb, 2022 | SlideUpLift

Powerful Words and Statements To Use In Presentations

No matter what industry you work in, you will have to deliver a presentation at some point. At first, this may be quite nerve-racking, if not simply terrifying.  The good

12 Jun, 2018 | SlideUpLift

Microsoft PowerPoint Shortcuts That You Didn’t Know

PowerPoint is nothing short of a phenomenal tool when it comes to building business presentations. If you have been a regular PowerPoint user, you would already know that it has

8 Feb, 2022 | SlideUpLift

Ten Presenting Styles : What Kind Are You?

Do you feel nervous when it comes to public speaking?  Don’t worry; you’re not alone. Do you know that according to research, one of the biggest phobias in 2014 was

14 Oct, 2022 | SlideUpLift

How To Create Your Perfect Webinar Presentation

Webinars are becoming an increasingly important tool for businesses to connect directly with their customers — to educate and inform, maintain relationships and even build a brand. They're also excellent

20 Aug, 2021 | SlideUpLift

Storytelling Tips to Change the Way You Present Ideas

A piece of oft-given advice surrounding making presentations is that in order to engage an audience, your presentation and speech need to have a narrative. And we wholeheartedly agree with

8 Jun, 2023 | SlideUpLift

How To Present Data In The Best Way?

Having accessible means to analyze and understand data is more vital than ever in our increasingly data-driven environment. After all, employers increasingly value people with strong data abilities, and every

16 Nov, 2022 | SlideUpLift

9 Best Presentation Ideas That Your Viewers Will Adore

There used to be a time of simplicity - an era of no notifications, vibrating phones, or social media pings- when things were done one at a time. Today is

3 Feb, 2022 | SlideUpLift

8 Tips Ahead Of Your Big Day: The Big Presentation Tips

Are you preparing for your next big presentation? Aside from preparing, writing, and practicing your speech, there are certain other actions you should do to ensure you are truly prepared

11 May, 2023 | SlideUpLift

6 Types of Presentation You Must Know (+ Tips)

Are you tired of giving the same old boring presentation, using the same format every time? Have you ever wondered if there are different types of presentations to achieve different

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