TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to “ideas worth spreading.” Its genesis was as a conference focusing on three areas: Technology, Entertainment, Design (thus the acronym “TED”) but since the early days some 26 years ago, it has broadened its scope. The annual conference attracts innovators and thought leaders from business, science, technology, and the arts. You can sample video clips at the TED site – but fair warning, there are more than 600 clips archived and surfing them can be quite addictive. They are rightfully billed as “riveting talks by remarkable people.” An index on the right hand side of the page allows you to sort them by the newest releases or to surf the archives by various other categories such as “most favorited all time”, “rated as inspiring”, or “rated as jaw-dropping.” Most are under 18 minutes, many are under 10 minutes in length.

Now, thanks to Garr Reynold’s blog Presentation Zen, you can learn how to make presentations in the TED style by reviewing the “TED Commandments” or rules every speaker needs to know. Garr also presents a variety of clips from TED presentations that represent various speaking styles, from “presenting fully naked” (using no slides or notes) to presenting with highly visual slides, and several other styles in between. If you have any upcoming presentations on the docket – whether for a large or just a meeting designed to motivate your work team – this is a good resource to bookmark for presentation tips and inspiration.

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