TED Talks Speech Tactics

Shubhendu Sharma: How to grow a tiny forest anywhere

      I opened up the TED website and the first thing I noticed was a video on the home page titled how to grow a tiny forest anywhere. I don't know about anybody else, but that title alone intrigued the hell out of me. The speaker on the issue did a very good job with his speech, he transitioned extremely well and he had a great start to the speech.
      One thing I noticed about his speech was his opening. He started out with back story, which seems to be the best way to go when it comes to explaining an idea. Sure you can sit in front of a crowd and talk about growing mini forests, but doing so doesn't tell the audience how the idea came about, or what qualifies you to run this project. A big negative of mine is how brief he was, I'd love to know more about this process, how it works, how this is going to change the world. I was left high and dry at the end with little knowledge other than that this guy can make a dense forest in a short amount of time.
     This speech was well presented, with great transition and flow, but when it came down to it lacked the substance I was yearning to hear after reading such an intriguing headline.

Isabel Allende: How to live passionately—no matter your age

      The second Ted talk I watched was also on the front page of TED, it was an older Latina woman talking about how she lives passionately at her old age. Although she didn't have a ton of material to talk about, her speech was so well presented that she held my attention. A trend I'm beginning to pick up on in any good speech is an attention grabber. The first sentence is the most important. She starts with a comical approach, whereas others may start with a question that leaves one with inquiries; the first sentence is always the most important.
      Transitions are everything. I'm a huge fan of her use of a quote as a transition to more points. In any form of presentation, quotes always seem to grab attention. Another good transitional technique for transitions is asking oneself a question then answering it with a more in depth explanation of the point one is trying to make.
      When presenting information the most important thing one can do is keep the audience's attention. For some topics this task may be easier than others, this reality is the difference between an easy and a hard speech. Whether the topic is basket weaving or cliff diving, the greatest public speakers can hold the attention of the audience throughout the duration of the presentation.