June Cohen on What Makes a Good TED Talk

June Cohen describes what makes a good TED Talk and comes up with these key points:

1. Tell Us Something New: What are the new ideas? What are the different ideas? What is a fresh take on an old topic or idea? What is a new angle on an old topic? What is a new way of telling the story?

2. Evoke Contagious Emotion: Are these talks spreading? Do they have a viral nature? Are people sharing this content with each other? What teaches people something new?

3. Tell a Story: take the listener on a journey. Take the listener somewhere.

4. Be Personal: the talk should tell the audience something about the speaker. The listeners want to feel the speaker inside of the story. What is your passion? What did you learn in childhood that brought you to an insight later on?

5. Don't Lose the Audience (lose your jargon instead): speak to an audience of general intelligence.

6. Start Strong: start with something that is really compelling and interesting.

7. Focus: you only have time for one idea.

8. Rehearse (but Sound Spontaneous): practice and get your phrasing right; use hours and hours of practice.

In another talk that gives pointers a TED curator focused on these four points:

1. Tell us about one great big idea.

2. Give us an accessible explanation of a complicated idea.

3. Tell us about something that's new -- something groundbreaking.

4. Tell us a story that lets us know what it means to be human. Give us a story about the human experience.