The Day TED Might Have Died

I recently wrote a post in which I shared an article written by Seth Godin. That article mentioned the (then) upcoming book on TED Talks by TED Curator, Chris Anderson. The book, TED Talks: The Official TED Guide to Public Speaking, is now available.

I recently discovered a post on LinkedIn—thanks for the tip, J.P. Theunissen—adapted from the book. In it, Anderson shares his insights about the time when TED was on the verge of collapse.

On the last day of the TED conference in February 2002, Anderson gave a talk to persuade the audience to keep supporting TED.

By his own admission, there were a lot of things that he did wrong. But there were also things that he did well. And there was one particular reason why, according to Anderson, his talk was a success. You should ponder it the next time you give a talk.  

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The Day TED Might Have Died

by Chris Anderson

When I first took over leadership of TED in late 2001, I was reeling from the near collapse of the company I had spent fifteen years building, and I was terrified of another huge public failure. I had been struggling to persuade the TED community to back my vision for TED, and I feared that it might just fizzle out. Back then, TED was an annual conference in California, owned and hosted by a charismatic architect named Richard Saul Wurman, whose larger-than-life presence infused every aspect of the conference.

About 800 people attended every year, and most of them seemed resigned to the fact that TED probably couldn’t survive once Wurman departed. The TED conference of February 2002 was the last one to be held under his leadership, and I had one chance and one chance only to persuade TED attendees that the conference would continue just fine. I had never run a conference before, however, and despite my best efforts over several months at marketing the following year’s event, only 70 people had signed up for it.

Chris Anderson - TED

Early on the last morning of that conference, I had 15 minutes to make my case. And here’s what you need to know about me: I am not naturally a great speaker. I say um and you know far too often. I will stop halfway through a sentence, trying to find the right word to continue. I can sound overly earnest, soft-spoken, conceptual. My quirky British sense of humor is not always shared by others.

I was so nervous about this moment, and so worried that I would look awkward on the stage, that I couldn’t even bring myself to stand. Instead I rolled forward a chair from the back of the stage, sat on it, and began.

I look back at that talk now and cringe—a lot. If I were critiquing it today, there are a hundred things I would change, starting with the wrinkly white T-shirt I was wearing. And yet … I had prepared carefully what I wanted to say, and I knew there were at least some in the audience desperate for TED to survive. If I could just give those supporters a reason to get excited, perhaps they would turn things around. Because of the recent dot-com bust, many in the audience had suffered business losses as bad as my own. Maybe I could connect with them that way?

I spoke from the heart, with as much openness and conviction as I could summon. I told people I had just gone through a massive business failure. That I’d come to think of myself as a complete loser. That the only way I’d survived mentally was by immersing myself in the world of ideas. That TED had come to mean the world to me—that it was a unique place where ideas from every discipline could be shared. That I would do all in my power to preserve its best values. That, in any case, the conference had brought such intense inspiration and learning to us that we couldn’t possibly let it die … could we?

Oh, and I broke the tension with an apocryphal anecdote about France’s Madame de Gaulle and how she shocked guests at a diplomatic dinner by expressing her desire for “a penis.” In England, I said, we also had that desire, although we pronounced it happiness, and TED had brought genuine happiness my way.

To my utter amazement, at the end of the talk, Jeff Bezos, the head of Amazon, who was seated in the center of the audience, rose to his feet and began clapping. And the whole room stood with him. It was as if the TED community had collectively decided, in just a few seconds, that it would support this new chapter of TED after all. And in the 60-minute break that followed, some 200 people committed to buying passes for the following year’s conference, guaranteeing its success.

If that 15-minute talk had fizzed, TED would have died, four years before ever putting a talk on the Internet. I’ll share why I think that talked ended up being effective, despite its evident awkwardness. It’s an insight that can be applied to any talk.

There were many things wrong with that talk, but it succeeded in one key aspect: It was the idea that what was truly special about TED was not just the founder I was taking over from. TED’s uniqueness lay in being a place where people from every discipline could come together and understand each other. This cross-fertilization really mattered for the world, and therefore the conference would be given nonprofit status and held in trust for public good. Its future was for all of us.

This idea changed the way the audience thought about the TED transition. It no longer mattered so much that the founder was leaving. What mattered now was that a special way of sharing knowledge should be preserved.

Your number one mission as a speaker is to take something that matters deeply to you and rebuild it inside the minds of your listeners. The only thing that truly matters in public speaking is not confidence, stage presence or smooth talking. It’s having something worth saying.

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  1. Dear John:

    My thoughts: If your readers plan to get only one book on public speaking, this is the one to get.
    If you are an experienced speaker, my suggestion; start reading the last section (Reflections) first and then go over the entire book.

    Chris Anderson has made some mammoth contributions to this world and this book is just one more. I don’t often feel compelled to write book reviews, but t this time I did–and a rather long one at that
    http://amzn.to/1TcjGPx

    BR … Rashid

    1. Thank you for the comment, Rashid and for the suggestion. I just finished reading your review of the book on Amazon. I cannot recall ever reading a more comprehensive book review. Well done. For those considering getting the book, have a look at Rashid’s review for some key insights.

  2. Hi John, just bought the book, and reading it as we speak……..inspiring content!
    Can you assist with this – I saw a video post inline sometime last year, an impromptu (?) speech by an Australian (?) on his aboriginal roots, which was not only impressive but truly inspirational.
    Can you point me to it, if you are aware of it, please ?
    Elfed
    UK

    1. Hi Elfed,
      Thanks for the comment. The only speech that comes to mind is Stan Grant’s terrific speech on racism in Australia. In fact, I wrote a post about it and you can read it here. Is this the one you were thinking of?

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John delivered a keynote address about the importance of public speaking to 80 senior members of Gore’s Medical Device Europe team at an important sales event. He was informative, engaging and inspirational. Everyone was motivated to improve their public speaking skills. Following his keynote, John has led public speaking workshops for Gore in Barcelona and Munich. He is an outstanding speaker who thinks carefully about the needs of his audience well before he steps on stage.

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TA Leader, Gore and Associates

I first got in touch with John while preparing to speak at TED Global about my work on ProtonMail. John helped me to sharpen the presentation and get on point faster, making the talk more focused and impactful. My speech was very well received, has since reached almost 1.8 million people and was successful in explaining a complex subject (email encryption) to a general audience.

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John gave the opening keynote on the second day of our unit’s recent offsite in Geneva, addressing an audience of 100+ attendees with a wealth of tips and techniques to deliver powerful, memorable presentations. I applied some of these techniques the very next week in an internal presentation, and I’ve been asked to give that presentation again to senior management, which has NEVER happened before. John is one of the greatest speakers I know and I can recommend his services without reservation.

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I was expecting a few speaking tips and tricks and a few fun exercises, but you went above and beyond – and sideways. You taught me to stand tall. You taught me to anchor myself. You taught me to breathe. You taught me to open up. You taught me to look people in the eye. You taught me to tell the truth. You taught me to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes. I got more than I bargained for in the best possible way.

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World Cancer Day Campaign Manager, Union for International Cancer Control

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HR Specialist, World Health Organization

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