Are some TEDx events better than others?
Are some TEDx events better than others?
Yes and no.
Organizers are volunteers and most are not expert event organizers (at least to start with!). They are regular people who care deeply about creating a stage to celebrate local voices with incredible ideas… for free.
We learn our skills on the fly and so of course you’ll find a discrepancy in production values between first time event organizers and very experienced ones.
At my first event way back in 2013 we begged and borrowed our set design from other events, shot each talk on Go-Pros and edited them ourselves.
The most recent event I organized was in a huge theater with thousands of dollars worth of A/V equipment, a professional lighting designer, photographer and team of 5 videographers.
And yet- there are speakers from that first event with 10,000s of views of their talk, and some from the latter with a few hundred.
A fancy event does not a viral TEDx talk make.
And at the end of the day, a TEDx is TEDx.
The video of your talk will end up in EXACTLY the same place- the TEDx YouTube channel and eventually, TED.com
When you tell someone you’re a TEDx speaker, no one is going to follow up with - well was it a 50 person event in a church hall or a 1,000 person event with a musical interlude and personalized Britney mic?
My go-to example of this is Simon Sinek’s famous talk about finding your Why- he spoke in front of a few tens of people, with dodgy video quality and a mic that needed replacing half way through.
A huge TEDx event did not make him famous, his idea did.
So don’t be too precious- apply everywhere. If you get accepted you can always be a little discerning afterwards about whether or not it’s the right fit.
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And remember- the TEDx event you have the best chance of speaking at is your local event.
After that, your next best chance is to places you have a connection to- your home state, your college town, the university you went to.
Why? because TEDx events are meant to serve, and represent, their local community.
Organizers are looking for local speakers and will only fill their line-up from outside speakers if they feel they need to.
That doesn’t mean you can’t apply elsewhere- you can absolutely apply all over the world, your chances are just slightly diminished for the same reasons.
And if you do get accepted far from home, you also have to keep in mind that you might have to travel there more than once (most likely at your own expense)- for workshops and rehearsals as well as the event.
⚡ If you want to know where you can apply today- well there’s a list of about 50 events (with links right to the applications form!) that you can apply to right now in my TEDx Application Spreadsheet.
