TEDx | Ideas on Stage USA

Put your most nervous speakers early in the program

by Pierre Morsa — Tuesday 9 July 2019

One of the most stressful moments when speaking at an event is actually not during your presentation, but the hours before your presentation. To some speakers, the wait can be so stressful that they completely lose their presence. As mother nature didn’t give humans an appropriate instinctive response to face the stress of a presentation, they adopt one of the basic survival techniques for protection: they fight the public, they flee, or they “play dead”.

Why Prezi failed at revolutionizing presentations

by Pierre Morsa — Tuesday 28 May 2019

In 2009, the year when TED decided to launch its TEDx license program, Prezi was born out of the desire to overcome the limitations of tools like PowerPoint and Keynote. With its dramatic zooming and panning effects, it certainly did catch the eye of audiences worldwide when it was introduced. But its over-reliance on movement effects quickly became a visual nuisance, making the audience feel as if they had been on a boat caught in a category 10 hurricane.

The 7 deadly sins of slide design

by Pierre Morsa — Tuesday 23 April 2019

This is a quick list of seven common problems that we see with slides created by non specialists. However they are relatively easy to spot, and you don’t have to be a graphic designer to avoid them. Read on and your next slides will look much better! Too much content. The goal is not to cover every single inch with content. It’s not because you have some space left at the bottom of the slide that you should put something there.

The triple stakes of great presentations

by Pierre Morsa — Tuesday 5 March 2019

The best presentations have three stakes, three reasons “why” they are important: The first stake is about you: why is the topic important for you? This is the reason you, and not somebody else, is on stage to deliver the presentation. The second stake is about your audience: why is it important for them? This is the reason why your audience is there to listen to you instead of doing something else.

5 warning signs someone is not ready to speak at your TEDx event

by Pierre Morsa — Tuesday 26 February 2019

“Don’t worry, I’m experienced, I speak at conferences all the time!” How many times have we heard that sentence from speakers who never did a TEDx style talk, yet think that, because of experience, they can just wing it? For us, it’s not reassuring. Quite the opposite, it’s a clear warning sign that the speaker doesn’t really know what is expected of him. Here are five warning signs that give you clues that your speaker may not be ready to give a TEDx style talk.

What Business Can Learn From TED

by Phil Waknell — Tuesday 10 April 2018

Today marks the start of TED2018, the latest edition of the world’s best-known modern conference. Participants in Vancouver will be treated to high-quality talks from well-prepared speakers, and will leave feeling energized and inspired. Back in the office, you and your colleagues will no doubt be subjected to low-quality presentations from poorly-prepared speakers, and you will leave feeling bored and uninspired. Business presentations are not TED talks. A board meeting is not a stage with a round red carpet.

TEDx Saclay – Worth all the Applause

by Rose Bloomfield - Friday 1 December 2017

For the third year running, Ideas on Stage was very happy to partner with the TEDx Saclay conference, which took place this November 30, 2017 in the brand-new CentraleSupélec amphitheater at the Plateau de Saclay on the powerful theme of “Serving the Living”. TEDx Saclay Keeping standards typically high, this year’s event boasted a rich program of speakers including a few notably prestigious guests such as Cédric Villani – renowned mathematician and member of the French National Assembly – as well as artists, scientists, students, entrepreneurs and even a Guinness World Record gamer (Kayane).

TEDX McGill 2016

Saturday 19 March 2016

Ideas on Stage, the global presentation specialists have been coaching TED speakers over the last six years with great results. This year we not only coached but also partnered with TedX McGill which occurred earlier this month. The event theme was paradigm shift and took place at McGill University in Montreal. And as always the speakers were amazing and working on very different fields from gravitational waves to cyborg rights fondation or NGO activist.