They had four minutes to win over the judges.
Four minutes to bring both confidence and content to the stage.
Four minutes to sell their big idea.
The 44 TEDxChilliwack hopefuls took to the stage at Cottonwood Cinemas over the course of three nights. In the end, theywere whittled down to 15 speakers. Those 15 are now poised to speak for up to 18 minutes on their chosen topics, at thefinal TEDxChilliwack night, April 8 at the GW Graham Theatre.
But they aren’t going in blind. The 15 speakers were paired with talented coaches, and the teams have been workingamongst themselves, via email, phone calls, meet ups, and even rehearsals. And they’re all prepared for the big night.
One of those speakers is Lisa Kean, who will speak about inclusion.
As an educator here in Chilliwack, she “lives and breathes inclusion.” It’s a topic, and a way of thinking, that she says is nearand dear to her heart. And for this very reason, it’s the perfect subject for her Ted talk.
Her coach, Laura Houghton, explains why.
“You have to engage the audience,” she says, as the two settle to chat at a local coffee shop. And nothing connects aspeaker with an audience like a personal experience.
“You want the speaker to be engaging, to have a presence, to have good content but also a good presentation.”
Kean’s daughter has special needs, and so the topic is a personal one. While she doesn’t divulge all the content of herspeech for the interview, it’s clear she’s passionate about the subject.
The key to a great presentation is to convey that passion to the audience. And Kean feels ready. She’s leaned on her coachfor support, for fine-tuning, and for tips and tricks. But when she steps out on the stage in front of a sea of faces, she’ll beon her own.
It’s a special thing, to be a TEDx or TEDTalks speaker. The audience genuinely wants to be there. They are primed to hearideas. They want to be let into different worlds and hear big plans. This year’s theme is Future Shapers, and all the talks willcircle back to this theme.
In Kean’s future, everyone in a room will be acknowledged in the same way. Differences will be noticed, but all will beincluded. And that future is starting to take place already, in classrooms and workplaces and social spaces all over theworld.
“It’s about treating all people as people,” Kean says. “Everyone should have access and know they are human and worthy ofcaring.”
Inclusion brings everyone up, Kean says. And inclusive environments provide growth, independence, and interaction withpeers.
Kean has seen 10 of the four-minute presentations, as she attended two of the preliminary talk events. She’s lookingforward to full presentations, which will take place throughout the entire day on April 8. The event is already nearly soldout, but for those who didn’t get a ticket it is being streamed live, with links on the TEDxChilliwack website.
TEDx Talks take place all across the world, and are put on with a specific licence through TED Talks. The organizers of thetalks have very specific guidelines to follow for the licensing. That includes screening a variety of TED Talks through theday. The event will also include live entertainment including music and comedy acts, and a lunch to break up the talks.
Unlike other TEDx Talks, though, the Chilliwack event is free.
Organizer Berris Karden says that’s thanks to some very generous sponsors of the event. He says the event is also being puton thanks to the support from the team, who are all volunteers.
“We’ve been working since August, mapping out what we’re going to do,” he says. “We were hoping for 36 speakers to signup (to choose the 15), but we were way oversubscribed.”
Initially 50 people had contacted them to speak, but that number dropped to 44.
Like Kean and Houghton, he’s looking forward to seeing the day come together, and sharing ideas for the future with Chilliwack.
To learn more about the speakers, the event, the team and the sponsors, visit www.tedxchilliwack.com.