So you’ve watched TEDtalks for years, and your first thought has always been: I have the next idea worth spreading.
Well, congrats! Now’s your chance to prove it!
TED is hosting a global search for TED2013 speakers. Yep, you heard me right. At least 50% of the speakers for TED2013 will come from this talent search, which is seeking out potential speakers from Qatar, the U.K., South Africa, Kenya, Tunisia, China, INDIA, South Korea, Australia, Japan, Canada, the U.S., Brazil and the Netherlands. TED is looking for gamechangers and groundshakers. Whether you’re a thinker or a doer, a performer or a teacher, the world is waiting to hear your ideas.
The deets are pretty simple:
Click here to figure out what TED is looking for. The deadline to apply for the Bangalore, India auditions (co-hosted by INK Curator Lakshmi Pratury) is midnight EST on April 8th.
Wow ‘em with your wisdom. We highly recommend you upload a video as part of your application.
And as an extra bonus to all the INK blog readers, make sure you check out this video by June Cohen, the Executive Producer of TED Media, on what makes a great TEDTalk. And if you want to know how to be a great speaker, watch this video by Bruno Giussani, the host of TEDGlobal, on what works on stage.
Good luck, and we’ll see you on-stage at the Bangalore auditions.
I’ve always wanted to be a leader. I think most people would agree. That word has an appealing zing to it. Nina Gannes: Leader of…it almost doesn’t matter what comes next. Almost no noun is as equally coveted in the English language.
Which is why, at some point over the course of your life, I’m sure you’ve asked yourself the question: “How do I become a better leader?” Are you nodding your head, yes? Good. Once you’ve realized that you really don’t know where to start, the follow-up question is “Who the heck can tell me what I need to know?”
In comes INK2011 Speaker Itay Talgam. Talgam uses the orchestra—yes, the classical music kind of orchestra—as a metaphor for business organizational leadership. Let me explain a little.
The only way an orchestra will sound good is if every member is attuned to a clear plan (i.e., the musical score) and the conductor’s vision to interpret that plan. It’s the conductor’s responsibility to connect the musician’s disparate musical statements to create a relevant flow of musical expression. And because each time the orchestra plays a piece the notes are uniquely expressed, the conductor must be always open to changing his perspectives and preconceptions about the directional flow the music might take. In essence, Talgam sees the job of the conductor as creating one storyline of an overarching interpretation of the music from the endless number of small choices the musicians are making each second about Mozart. Sounds a lot like shaping the complexities of business, don’t you think?
Talgam agrees with you exactly. And so by watching videos of expert conductors who are geniuses at crafting musical storylines, we can take tips on how to manage our businesses better. Every conductor has established a leadership style that clearly defines the boundaries of the expected relationship between conductor and orchestra. They could be leading from within—or leading from without. The conductor establishes rules and expectations about the type of control he will assume, and within those guidelines he creates space for the musicians to listen and react to one another. The genius of the best conductors is that they don’t assume total control. By knowing when to step in—and when to step back—they create opportunities for the musicians to lead and interact with one another to create music that is more than the sum of its parts.
In essence, this is exactly the point of great leadership—to enable ideas to blossom. So to become a leader yourself, establish a culture of interactive dialogue, enable exponential collaboration to occur daily, make a coherent storyline of it all, and then get yourself season tickets to the New York Philharmonic.
By Nina Gannes, INK Staff
March 6, 2012
To watch Itay Talgam’s INKtalk, click here, or see below.
The theme for INK 2011 is ‘Power of the Journey’. Here’s INK Host and Curator Lakshmi Pratury’s take on it.
From the time we are children, we are asked to set goals, create milestones and make plans to achieve them. We treat the journey as a means to an end, an investment with a pay off, as a necessary evil. What if we turn the tables around and enjoy the journey, and let the end take care of itself? What if we were determined to have fun along the way and not worry about the outcome? What if, just what if, the journey is all that mattered?
Abraham Lincoln did not have abolishing slavery as a goal when he started; Gandhi did not aim to throw the British out of India when he decided to do “something” about being thrown out of a first class compartment. Tagore did not certainly aim to get a Nobel Prize when he spent years in isolation writing poetry, nor did JK Rowling set out to be a billionaire when she created Harry Potter as a fictional companion for her child. In fact, when the financial industry got carried away by the destination without paying attention to the journey, it brought down the entire world to its knees.
At INK2011, we celebrate the journey. We will have the world’s most innovative thought leaders share the stories of journeys that mattered to them, that inspired them and journeys they believe would make a difference in the world.
Here are a few possibilities:
- A screen writer talking about the journey of the word – from an idea to book to script to the screen.
- A designer demonstrating the power of collective journeys that make a difference to millions displaced out of their homes.
- A scientist revealing the journey of a Nobel-winning idea.
- A business person turning the urge to do good into a profit-making brand.
And many more talks that take you through the journey of our brain, our five senses, of money, travel and more.
It’s the journey that matters. Join us.
