Saturday, May 28, 2011

TEDxSydney: why communicating your ideas well, matters

At TEDxSydney today I've been blessed to hear, and see, some great ideas. Some great ideas were well expressed. Other great, important ideas were not well expressed...and thus may languish.

Some less interesting and less ground breaking ideas were well expressed.

So what's the buzz? Well it's about the ideas that are well expressed...of course.

The presenters got people talking, engaged and wanting to help in their causes. Here's what those compelling presenters did...

- They had a clear theme
- A thread of logic
- A quirk or 'bait' (maybe humour) to draw us in
- They were, in some way, a little or a lot, personal
- Their ideas mattered - they were aimed at doing good

And finally the best presenters, as Naomi Simson pointed out, got their 'look' right. Yes smart people, it does matter. Because like it not our appearance also sends a message. Unmanaged it detracts from good, or otherwise great, content.

And without managing our messages? No one listens. No one supports your great work. The message doesn't get out.

For more on TEDxSydney my tweets from today are under @Carden, and you can see the all of the day's tweets by searching for #TEDxSydney.

For an overview of the speakers at TEDxSydney, see Naomi Simson's blog here.