how to do a presentation ted talk

6 dos and don’ts for next-level slides, from a TED presentation expert

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Want to prevent yawns and glazed-over eyes? Before you deliver your next speech, pitch or address, learn how to create exceptional slides by following these rules (with real before-and-afters).

Slides are an expected and crucial part of most speeches, presentations, pitches and addresses. They can simplify complex information or messages, showcase relevant images, and help hold an audience’s attention. But quite often, the best slides aren’t those that make people sit up and comment on how good they are; instead, they’re the ones that people take in without really noticing because the content is effortlessly conveyed and matches the speaker’s words so well.

These days, showing high-quality slides is more important than ever. “We’re living in a visual culture,” says Paul Jurczynski , the cofounder of Improve Presentation and one of the people who works with TED speakers to overhaul their slides. “Everything is visual. Instagram is on fire, and you don’t often see bad images on there. The same trend has come to presentations.”

He says there is no “right” number of slides. However, it’s important that every single one shown — even the blank ones (more on those later) — be, as Jurczynski puts it, “connected with the story you’re telling.” Here, he shares 6 specific tips for creating the most effective slides. ( Note: All of the examples below were taken from the actual slides of TED speakers. )

1. Do keep your slides simple and succinct

“The most common mistake I see is slides that are overcrowded. People tend to want to spell everything out and cover too much information,” says Jurczynski. Not only are these everything-but-the-kitchen-sink slides unattractive and amateurish, they also divert your audience’s attention away from what you’re saying. You want them to listen to the words that you slaved over, not get distracted by unscrambling a jam-packed slide.

“The golden rule is to have one claim or idea per slide. If you have more to say, put it on the next slide,” says Jurczynski. Another hallmark of a successful slide: The words and images are placed in a way that begins where the audience’s eyes naturally go and then follows their gaze. Use the position, size, shape and color of your visuals to make it clear what should come first, second and so on. “You don’t just control what the audience sees; you have to control how they see it,” says Jurczynski.

BEFORE: Too crowded 

After: easy to absorb.

2. Do choose colors and fonts with care

Colors and fonts are like the herbs and spices of your presentation. When used wisely and with intention, they’ll enhance your slides; but when tossed in haphazardly, they’ll make it an unappealing mess.

Let’s start with color. “Color is a key way to communicate visually and to evoke emotion,” says Jurczynski. “It can be a game changer.” Your impulse might be to pick your favorite hue and start from there, but he advises, “it’s important to use color with a purpose.” For example, if you’re giving a presentation about a positive topic, you’ll want to use bright, playful colors. But if you’re speaking about a serious subject such as gun violence or lung cancer, you’d probably go for darker or neutral colors.

While it’s fine to use a variety of colors in your presentation, overall you should adhere to a consistent color scheme, or palette. “The good news is you don’t need a degree in color theory to build a palette,” says Jurczynski. Check out one of the many free sites — such as Coolors or Color Hunt — that can help you assemble color schemes.

With fonts, settle on just one or two, and make sure they match the tone of your presentation. “You don’t have to stick to the fonts that you have in PowerPoint,” or whatever program you’re using, says Jurczynski. “People are now designing and sharing fonts that are easy to install in different programs. It’s been an amazing breakthrough.” Experiment. Try swapping a commonly used font like Arial for Lato or Bebas , two of many lesser known fonts available online. Most important: “Use a big enough font, which people often forget to do,” advises Jurczynski. Your text has to be both legible and large enough to read from the back of the room, he recommends — about 30 points or so.

BEFORE: Weak and hard-to-read font, muddy colors 

AFTER: Strong font, color that’s striking but not jarring

3. Don’t settle for visual cliches

When you’re attempting to illustrate concepts, go beyond the first idea that comes to your mind. Why? The reason it appears so readily may be because it’s a cliché. For example, “a light bulb as a symbol for innovation has gotten really tired,” says Jurczynski. Other oft-used metaphors include a bull’s-eye target or shaking hands. After you’ve come up with your symbol or idea, he advises people to resist the lure of Google images (where there are too many low-quality and clichéd choices) and browse other free image sites such as Unsplash to find more unique visuals. One trick: If you do use stock, amp it up with a color overlay (as in the pic at the top of this article) or tweak it in some other way to counteract — or at least muffle — its stock-i-ness.

One potential source of pictures is much closer at hand. “If it fits the storyline, I encourage people to use their own images,” says Jurczynski. “Like one TED Talk where the speaker, a doctor, used photos of his experience treating people in Africa. That was all he needed. They were very powerful.” Major caveat: Any personal photos must support your speech or presentation. Do not squander your audience’s precious time by showing them a gratuitous picture of your children or grandparents — beautiful as they may be.

BEFORE: Fake-looking stock photo to illustrate teamwork 

After: eye-catching photo of nature to illustrate teamwork.

4. Don’t get bogged down by charts and graphs

Less is also more when it comes to data visualization. Keep any charts or graphs streamlined. When building them, ask yourself these questions:

What do I want the audience to take away from my infographic?

Why is it important for them to know this?

How does it tie into my overall story or message?

You may need to highlight key numbers or data points by using color, bolding, enlarging or some other visual treatment that makes them pop.

Maps are another commonly used infographic. Again, exercise restraint and use them only if they enhance your talk. “Sometimes, people put a map because they don’t know what else to show,” says Jurczynski. He suggests employing labels, color schemes or highlighting to direct your audience where to look. He adds, if you have the skill or know an artist, “you may even consider a hand-drawn map.”

BEFORE: Yikes! What’s important?!? AFTER: The takeaway is clear

5. don’t be scared of blank slides.

It may seem counterintuitive, but at certain points in your speech or pitch, the best visual is … no visual at all. “At the beginning, I was not a fan of blank slides,” says Jurczynski. “But the more talks I’ve seen, the more a fan I am of them, because sometimes you want all the attention on yourself and you don’t want people distracted by what they see in the slides. Or, you might use them to give the audience a visual break from a series of slides. Or maybe you want to shift the mood or tempo of the presentation.”

The blank slide is the visual equivalent of a pause, and most stories could use at least one. And with blank slides, Jurczynski has one main “don’t”: “You cannot use white blank slides, because if you do, people will see it and think something is broken.”

6. Do remember to practice

The easiest way to figure out if your slides really work? Recruit a colleague, friend or family member, and run through your entire presentation with them. Sometimes, people can get so carried away with rehearsing their delivery and memorizing their words that they forget to make sure their slides complement and synch up with what they’re saying.

“Even if you have the best visual s in the world, you need to practice in front of someone else. Once you start practicing, you may see, ‘I’m talking about a sad story, but on the slide behind me, I have something funny and that doesn’t make sense,'” says Jurczynski. “Or, ‘Oh, this could be a good place for a blank slide.’”

About the author

Amanda Miller manages curation for partner events at TED.

• business advice
• data visualization
• idea visualization
• presentation literacy
• public speaking

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How to Create Your TED Talk: An 8-Step Process

by Jezra on March 9, 2017

First, A Little Background on TED

The TED conference (which stands for  technology, entertainment, design ) began life in 1984 as a yearly and very expensive conference where industry leaders and creative types gathered to exchange “Ideas Worth Spreading.”

Back then, it was all about the live experience, and speakers were expected to bring some quirky spontaneity to the stage.

But fast forward more than 30 years, and TED has become an institution, spawning countless local “TEDx” events, putting hundreds of speeches online each year, getting millions upon millions of views, and changing the way we all think about public speaking!

So, What  IS  a TED Talk?

According to Chris Anderson, the owner and global curator of TED, every TED talk starts with an idea :

“You have something meaningful to say, and your goal is to re-create your core idea inside your audience’s minds.” —from TED Talks: The Official TED Guide to Public Speaking

Anderson calls this idea “the gift in every great talk.” Your idea may:

• Be common-sense (“Every kid needs a champion”) or counter-intuitive (“The way we think about charity is wrong”)
• Describe a scientific breakthrough (“How bacteria talk”) or your own experience (“I am the son of a terrorist, here’s how I chose peace”)
• Motivate people to action (“We need to talk about an injustice”) or greater self-awareness (“Your elusive creative genius”)

But in every case, your TED talk will begin with an idea.

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And whether or not your talk actually builds a model of your idea in your listeners’ brain — Anderson takes that literally, and research on “neural coupling” backs him up — your TED talk exists to communicate this idea to your listeners.

That is your talk’s one and only goal.

Other Qualities of Successful TED Talks

In TED’s secret to great public speaking (an eight-minute video that’s worth watching), Anderson offers three guidelines for creating your TED talk:

• Focus on one major idea

Ideas are complex things; you need to slash back your content so that you can focus on the single idea you’re most passionate about , and give yourself a chance to explain that one thing properly… Everything you say [should link] back to it in some way.

• Give people a reason to care

Stir your audience’s curiosity. Use intriguing, provocative questions to identify why something doesn’t make sense and needs explaining. If you can reveal a disconnection in someone’s worldview , they’ll feel the need to bridge that knowledge gap.

• Build your idea with familiar concepts

Build your idea, piece by piece, out of concepts that your audience already understands … A vivid explanation… delivers a satisfying ah-hah! moment as it snaps into place in our minds.

These are important best practices, but they don’t tell you what to  do  to create a TED talk.

For that, try this…

8-Step Process for Creating Your TED Talk

Step 1. find an idea you want to share.

To hone in on your idea worth sharing, it can be useful to ask yourself things like:

• What’s one assumption I’d like to challenge?
• What’s a belief of mine that has changed, and why?
• What does everyone miss when they think about my area of interest or expertise?

And remember, you’re looking for an idea . As Jeremey Donovan says in How to Deliver a TED Talk ,

…an idea is not a theme, a general truth, a platitude or a big goal. “Everyone wants to feel included” is not an idea, it’s a general truth. “Empowering women” is not an idea, it’s a topic.

Step 2. Develop an unexpected and/or catchy way to state your idea

If your idea can be stated in a catchy way, listeners will pay more attention and remember it more easily. Here are some examples (with more conventional versions of the same idea in parentheses):

• We can solve malnutrition now (vs. Malnutrition is a problem that is finally, in our day and age, able to be resolved by advances in science.)
• Almost dying saved my life (vs. A near death experience created the motivation for me to face and overcome problems that otherwise would have slowly killed me.)
• Never, ever give up (vs. Cultivate the ability to commit without wavering; it’s an essential component of your lifelong success.)

Step 3. Collect anything and everything that relates to your idea

To re-create your idea in the minds of your listeners, you’ll need vivid examples, illustrations, stories, facts, questions, comments, etc.

So take a few days to notice anything and everything that relates to your idea, and collect these materials by writing them down, taking photos, recording your thoughts as sound files, etc.

Examples of things you might collect include:

• a snippet of conversation
• a quote you heard in high school
• a story that relates to your idea
• a fact, or cluster of data that supports it
• a metaphor or analogy that helps explain it
• a personal moment in your relationship with the idea
• a physical object that will help your audience understand it (here, my client Erika Frenkel presents an anesthesia machine )

Basically, anything that comes to your mind at this stage should be collected.

And don’t worry yet about which materials will end up in your talk.

You can’t collect  things and evaluate  them at the same time, so just collect for now; you’ll have a chance to evaluate later.

Step 4. Start imagining how you might open and end your talk

While it’s too soon to choose your opening and close, it’s not too soon to start playing with ideas for these important parts of your talk.

An effective way to begin any speech (not just a TED talk) is to grab your audience’s attention — often with a human interest story, a surprising statistic, an unexpected observation, or a thought-provoking question.

There are probably some great attention-grabbers in the material you collected for Step 3. Pick one that you particularly like, and flag it as a possible  opening for your talk.

As for the close , you’ll probably want to end your talk in a positive, forward-looking way . This is often done by:

• calling the audience to action;
• painting a hopeful picture of the future; and/or
• “paying off” (finishing, resolving) a story or discussion that has run through your talk, so that listeners get a sense of closure.

With your provisional opening and close in mind, you’re now ready to…

Step 5. Put the rest of your materials in a reasonable order

The middle of any speech is tricky, and a TED talk is particularly so, because TED talks can take just about any form you’d like.

So to tackle this part of your TED talk, take the materials you’ve collected and shuffle them until you find a good arrangement. To do this, you can:

• Create a high-level outline (leave out most of the detail, just arrange the big points or elements)
• Write each element (story, comment, observation, fact) on a 3 x 5 card and physically shuffle them to see different possible orders. (You can do this on a table, or digitally, by creating one slide per element and shuffling them with PowerPoint’s “slide sorter” feature)
• Use sound (speaking out loud) instead of writing to put your talk elements into different sequences (Ask: Does it sound right if I tell that story first, then give the fact? How about if I give the fact first, then tell the story?)
• Try any other method that works for you.

How will you know when the order is good?

Keep in mind that your goal is to create an understanding of your idea in the minds of your audience members , and try to arrange your explanations, comments, and stories in a way that leads to that goal. (You’ll get to test this on real people in Step 7.)

Trust your instincts: If something seems out of place to you, it probably is. Try moving it to a different part of your talk or even skipping it, and see if that works better.

And don’t expect to find the best organization for your talk the first time you try, because that almost never happens!

Step 6. Talk your way to a rough draft of your script

This is where your “speaking plan” becomes a “speech.”

Take your outline or list of ordered elements and talk about each item in turn.

When I’m writing a speech, I like to literally talk it out loud and type up what I’m saying as I’m saying it — but you can also use your computer’s voice recognition software to capture your words, or talk into the voice memo feature on your phone (this used to be called “dictating”) and type up the sound file later.

Why  record yourself talking  instead of just writing out the speech?

Because most of us get all formal and stiff when we write, and the ideal for a talk is that it sounds like you’re…  talking !

And here’s a hint:

As you do this step, pay particular attention to the way different elements (materials) that you’ve used in your talk are connected.

If, for example, you tell me that:

• The river flooded, and
• Some people moved out of the neighborhood…

I’ll want to know: Did people move  because  the river flooded? Did most people stay even though  the river flooded? Did the river flood  after  people had already moved?

When you spell things out clearly, people will form a clear picture of your point.

Step 7. Try out your Ted talk draft on a volunteer listener

The point of this step is to get feedback on how to improve the structure and clarity of your draft.

Ask someone you trust — a smart 10-year-old is perfect — to listen to your talk.

Read it to them (because you haven’t finalized, let alone memorized, it yet), and then ask them:

• Did I explain my idea clearly?
• Was there anything in my talk that you didn’t follow?
• Was there anything you didn’t understand?
• Did anything seem out of place?
• Did I lose your interest anywhere?

If your listener wants to discuss the 6,000 facts you left out, or how your talk should really be about X instead of Y, gently lead them back to these questions.

The point is not to  change  your talk. The point is to  improve  it’s effectiveness.

Step 8. Repeat the following steps as needed

• Based on your listener’s feedback, make changes that will improve your draft. But don’t get carried away editing; if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! (And keep your old drafts in case you want to go back to something you did earlier; I number mine v1, v2, v3, etc.)

2. Practice delivering your new draft out loud.

3. Try out your new draft on a volunteer listener, get their feedback , and repeat these steps as often as needed until your talk has taken a satisfying shape.

And finally…

There’s no better time to start working on your talk than now. Even if your schedule is crammed, you’re better off working for a few minutes each day than leaving everything to the last minute!

And as you work this process, remember that perfection isn’t possible.

So instead of striving for perfection, prepare carefully, take your best shot, and try to  relax .

Your audience is going to love this talk — and you deserve to enjoy it, too!

Need Coaching or Speechwriting for Your TED Talk? Get in Touch!

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You May Also Want to Read...

• Giving a TED-Style Talk? Here's How They're Different from Business Presentations
• TED Has Eliminated Two Things That Used to Be Said In Most Speeches: Hello and Thank You. Should You?
• Masterful Public Speaking: Daniel Kraft's TEDx Talk

10 tips on how to make slides that communicate your idea, from TED’s in-house expert

When your slides rock, your whole presentation pops to life. At TED2014, David Epstein created a clean, informative slide deck to support his talk on the changing bodies of athletes . Photo: James Duncan Davidson/TED

Aaron Weyenberg is the master of slide decks. Our UX Lead creates Keynote presentations that are both slick and charming—the kind that pull you in and keep you captivated, but in an understated way that helps you focus on what’s actually being said. He does this for his own presentations and for lots of other folks in the office. Yes, his coworkers ask him to design their slides, because he’s just that good.

We asked Aaron to bottle his Keynote mojo so that others could benefit from it. Here, 10 tips for making an effective slide deck, split into two parts: the big, overarching goals, and the little tips and tricks that make your presentation sing.

Aaron used this image of a New Zealand disaster to kick off a slide deck from TED’s tech team — all about how they prepares for worst-case scenarios. He asked for permission to use the image, and credited the photographer, Blair Harkness. View the whole slidedeck from this presentation.

The big picture…

• Think about your slides last . Building your slides should be the tail end of developing your presentation. Think about your main message, structure its supporting points, practice it and time it—and then start thinking about your slides. The presentation needs to stand on its own; the slides are just something you layer over it to enhance the listener experience. Too often, I see slide decks that feel more like presenter notes, but I think it’s far more effective when the slides are for the audience to give them a visual experience that adds to the words. .
• Create a consistent look and feel . In a good slide deck, each slide feels like part of the same story. That means using the same or related typography, colors and imagery across all your slides. Using pre-built master slides can be a good way to do that, but it can feel restrictive and lead to me-too decks. I like to create a few slides to hold sample graphic elements and type, then copy what I need from those slides as I go. .
• Think about topic transitions . It can be easy to go too far in the direction of consistency, though. You don’t want each slide to look exactly the same. I like to create one style for the slides that are the meat of what I’m saying, and then another style for the transitions between topics. For example, if my general slides have a dark background with light text, I’ll try transition slides that have a light background with dark text. That way they feel like part of the same family, but the presentation has texture—and the audience gets a visual cue that we’re moving onto a new topic. .
• With text, less is almost always more . One thing to avoid—slides with a lot of text, especially if it’s a repeat of what you’re saying out loud. It’s like if you give a paper handout in a meeting—everyone’s head goes down and they read, rather than staying heads-up and listening. If there are a lot of words on your slide, you’re asking your audience to split their attention between what they’re reading and what they’re hearing. That’s really hard for a brain to do, and it compromises the effectiveness of both your slide text and your spoken words. If you can’t avoid having text-y slides, try to progressively reveal text (like unveiling bullet points one by one) as you need it. .
• Use photos that enhance meaning . I love using simple, punchy photos in presentations, because they help what you’re saying resonate in your audience’s mind without pulling their attention from your spoken words. Look for photos that (1) speak strongly to the concept you’re talking about and (2) aren’t compositionally complex. Your photo could be a metaphor or something more literal, but it should be clear why the audience is looking at it, and why it’s paired with what you’re saying. For example, I recently used the image above—a photo of a container ship about to tip over (it eventually sank)—to lead off a co-worker’s deck about failure preparation. And below is another example of a photo I used in a deck to talk about the launch of the new TED.com . The point I was making was that a launch isn’t the end of a project—it’s the beginning of something new. We’ll learn, adapt, change and grow.

Here, a lovely image from a slidedeck Aaron created about the redesign of TED.com . View the whole deck from this presentation .

And now some tactical tips…

• Go easy on the effects and transitions . Keynote and Powerpoint come with a lot of effects and transitions. In my opinion, most of these don’t do much to enhance the audience experience. At worst, they subtly suggest that the content of your slides is so uninteresting that a page flip or droplet transition will snap the audience out of their lethargy. If you must use them, use the most subtle ones, and keep it consistent. .

• Try panning large images . Often, I want to show screen shot of an entire web page in my presentations. There’s a great Chrome extension to capture these—but these images are oftentimes much longer than the canvas size of the presentation. Rather than scaling the image to an illegible size, or cropping it, you can pan it vertically as you talk about it. In Keynote, this is done with a Move effect, which you can apply from an object’s action panel. .
• For video, don’t use autoplay . It’s super easy to insert video in Keynote and Powerpoint—you just drag a Quicktime file onto the slide. And when you advance the deck to the slide with the video that autoplays, sometimes it can take a moment for the machine to actually start playing it. So often I’ve seen presenters click again in an attempt to start the video during this delay, causing the deck to go to the next slide. Instead, set the video to click to play. That way you have more predictable control over the video start time, and even select a poster frame to show before starting. .

Lastly, I’d love to leave you with a couple book recommendations. The first is Resonate , by Nancy Duarte. It’s not so much about slides, but about public speaking in general – which is the foundation for any presentation, regardless of how great your slides are. In it, she breaks down the anatomy of what makes a great presentation, how to establish a central message and structure your talk, and more. (One of her case studies comes from Benjamin Zander’s charming TED Talk about classical music, a talk that captivated the audience from start to finish.) Think of this as prerequisite reading for my second recommendation, also by Duarte: Slide:ology . This is more focused on presentation visuals and slides.

Happy slide-making.

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Comments (57)

.css-1qrtm5m{display:block;margin-bottom:8px;text-transform:uppercase;font-size:14px;line-height:1.5714285714285714;-webkit-letter-spacing:-0.35px;-moz-letter-spacing:-0.35px;-ms-letter-spacing:-0.35px;letter-spacing:-0.35px;font-weight:300;color:#606F7B;}@media (min-width:600px){.css-1qrtm5m{font-size:16px;line-height:1.625;-webkit-letter-spacing:-0.5px;-moz-letter-spacing:-0.5px;-ms-letter-spacing:-0.5px;letter-spacing:-0.5px;}} Best Practices 5 essential preparation steps for a successful presentation

by Tom Rielly • June 15, 2020

Keeping your presentation visuals minimalistic, simple, and clear is just one important step to remember when designing a hit presentation. Leaving nothing to chance, great presenters prove quite methodical as they prepare. Here’s a checklist for everything you need to keep in mind before your next presentation:

1. Choose the right software for your needs

The easiest way to select the right presentation software for you is to simply find the one that is native to your device. For example, if you have a Mac, use Apple Keynote, if you work on Windows, use PowerPoint. Google Slides is recommended if you’re working with someone, as it makes collaboration very easy. Another software option is Prezi: a specialty tool called Prezi that creates a presentation using motion, zoom, and panning across one giant visual space.

2. Organize your files

As you develop your script and visuals, you will need to start assembling all the assets for your slides. Create a unique folder on your computer to hold these items. Keep the folder organized by media type (presentation drafts, photos, videos, scripts) and back them up frequently to the Cloud or external disk. Label each file with a specific descriptive name, e.g. “Susan Johnson singing magpie 2020”, as opposed to “IMG_4043.jpg”, which can make it confusing to find your assets. The more organized you are up front, the easier preparing for your presentation will be.

3. Prepare your presentation materials

Make sure your presentation materials (script, graphics, actual slides) are saved in at least two safe spots (for example, your computer and an external USB drive) and are backed-up frequently. If you are using an online presentation software, such as Google Slides, be sure to also download a copy of your presentation in case the internet connection is unreliable. Having all the individual assets on hand in addition to your presentation slides can be helpful if you experience tech issues before presenting, or if you need to make any last minute changes. Make sure to label your final presentation with the title and your name so it’s easy to find.

4. Practice, practice, practice!

Remember, practice makes perfect. People often run out of time making their presentations and have no time to practice. Most TED speakers practice at least ten times. Neuroscientist Jill-Bolte Taylor gave one of the most successful Talks in TED history with nearly 27 million views. How did she do it? She practiced her Talk over 40 times! By rehearsing multiple times you will naturally memorize your Talk, which means you won’t need note cards when you give your final presentation.

5. Do a final test run

Before presenting, make sure the equipment you need is working properly. It’s generally good practice to rehearse standing on the exact stage with the exact lighting using the exact computer that you will be using in your final presentation.

Here’s a quick checklist of what to look for when testing your equipment:

• If you're not using your own computer, the one provided might be slower and have trouble playing media. If you have videos or other media, make sure they play correctly
• Test the projector to make sure it’s HD
• Make sure images are clear
• Test the sound of any clips you use, as this is what goes wrong most frequently
• If you’re using a mic, test the volume

Don’t let technical issues or other blunders overshadow your presentation. By following these guidelines, and with a little preparation, you can engineer out the problems BEFORE they happen.

Ready to learn more about how to make your presentation even better? Get TED Masterclass and develop your ideas into TED-style talks

© 2024 TED Conferences, LLC. All rights reserved. Please note that the TED Talks Usage policy does not apply to this content and is not subject to our creative commons license.

Create + prepare slides

Not every speaker decides to use slides, but if they do, there’s one cardinal rule to follow: Keep it simple.

Editing your speakers’ slides

Slides can be helpful, but are not necessarily suited for a particular talk. In fact, a lot of our best TED and TEDx Talks have had no slides. So if you don’t think your speaker needs slides, don’t let them use slides. Explain to them that their talk is strong enough without them.

When your speakers do have slides, the general consensus is that less is more . A single, strong, graphic image or succinct line of text will tell your speaker’s story better than a crowded collage of pictures or long paragraph. Remember, people need to process everything a speaker is saying while simultaneously absorbing the slides.

Your speakers will have tips and instructions on slides in their Speaker Guide , but it’s important for you to review their slides, edit, and cut when needed.

When it comes to images and design:

• Make sure the slides are image rich, and easy to understand. Bring in a designer if needed.
• Only use high-resolution pictures and graphics.
• Keep graphs visually clear, even if the content is complex.

When it comes to text and content, ask:

• Do the slides have a lot of text? Text-heavy slides will only distract the listener from the heart of the message.
• Do the slides have too much information? No slide should support more than one point.
• Is each slide necessary? Too many slides can be distracting. Make sure every slide has a purpose – for those that don’t, cut them.

Prepare slides for presentation

You’ll want to work with your video and production manager and their tech team to make sure that all of the technical details are covered, but here are the need-to-knows:

Text size is important

The slide text should be large enough to be legible to the person sitting farthest from the stage. Make sure you test this during rehearsal, and make changes if needed.

Use a simple slide background

A simple background keeps the text readable. If you are using a dark or black background, make the text bold.

Make sure the slides are measured and sized correctly

You can't always be sure what type of presentation screen you'll be dealing with. (And changes often happen at the last minute!) Build slides that will work in any of the following dimensions:

• Widescreen HD (16:9 aspect ratio): 1920x1080 (hi res)
• Widescreen HD (16:9 aspect ratio): 1280x720 (low res)
• Squarescreen (4:3 aspect ratio): 1024x768 (hi res)
• Squarescreen (4:3 aspect ratio): 800x600 (low res)

Store presentations in one place

Load all presentations onto one or two house computers, rather than speakers' laptops. This ensures compatibility, and helps to speed transitions between presenters.

Next: Rehearsals

Examples of great slides

Dan Phillips

Creative houses from reclaimed stuff.

Jarrett J. Krosoczka

How a boy became an artist.

Rick Guidotti

From stigma to supermodel.

• Rather than one complex slide, encourage speakers to show several slides – each with one idea, image or data point.
• Remind your speakers that the images represent what they’re saying, so there is no need to verbally describe the images onscreen.
• Eliminate "headline and bullet points" slides; they are tiring to read.
• Consider making a rule of a maximum of six lines of text per slide. (Most of the time, just one or two lines will do!)
• To help the audience remember a person, place or thing you mention, your speaker might use images or photos.
• Encourage your speaker to use a common sans serif font (like Helvetica or Verdana) over a serif font (like Times).

Rules to remember

• Your speakers must own the rights to all images used on their slides. If they use an image under a Creative Commons license, cite the source at the bottom of the slide.

• Wellbeing Keynote Speaker
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• For Event Planners

How to present like a TED Talk: 15 Pro Tips

by Akash Karia · Updated Jun. 21, 2024

Want to present like a TED Talk? Whether you are going to be presenting at the TED conference or simply delivering a TED style talk in the boardroom, this guide will help you master the art of preparing and presenting your message with confidence and poise.

If you’ve ever watched a TED Talk, you’ve most likely been captivated by the speakers you’ve seen on the stage. Speakers on the TED stage are some of the best public speakers on the planet.

Over the last decade as a speaker coach, I’ve studied over 200 TED talks and written 3 books on the subject. This article distills some of the key concepts from my bestselling book, “ How to Deliver a Great TED Talk . ”

Note: If you came here because you read the book “How to Deliver A Great TED Talk”, then you can find links to all the talks referenced at the bottom of this post. 

What Makes A Good TED Talk?

A good speech is one that:

• Engages the audience
• Takes them on a journey
• Provides the audience with a new perspective or insight
• Leaves the audience inspired to take action

And does all that in only 18 minutes – i.e. a tight time limit.

In this post, you will discover 15 public speaking tips from the best TED speakers. These include:

• How to choose a TED Talk topic
• How to write a TED Talk outline
• How to open your presentation
• How to end your presentation
• How to build the body of the speech
• Books you should read to level up your presentation skills

Let’s dive into it:

How to Choose Your TED Talk Topic

Before you dive into writing your speech or creating your presentation slides, it’s important that you find a message that’s worth sharing. But, how exactly do you come up with a TED Talk topic?

TED’s mission is “to discover and spread ideas that spark imagination, embrace possibility and catalyze impact.”

This means that the message matters more than the delivery.

While having charisma and being able to present with confidence help, what truly matters is the idea you are presenting.

The first step is to ask yourself: What is my message? What is the core idea I want to share?

Whenever I coach leaders and executives , I ask them to write out their core idea out in 3 short sentences or less. If you can’t summarize your core idea in less than 3 sentences, then you probably don’t have a clear grasp on your message.

But, what exactly makes a good TED Talk topic?

Also check out: 8 top public speaking tips 

Tip 1: Uncover Your Message from Your Mess

I once asked a friend who went through a messy divorce how she was able to rebuild her life so quickly afterward.

“I looked for the gift in the tragedy.”

Isn’t that remarkable?

No matter what mess you’ve gone through, if you’ve emerged on the other side of it, you’ve probably done so with  valuable lessons and insights. Consider how one of your messes might actually be a message worth sharing.

For example, brain researcher Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor shared on stage the lesson she learned when a blood vessel exploded in the left half of her brain. She used that as the personal story to lead into a message about brain health:

Related: Storytelling Training for Leaders

Tip 2: Use Their Problem to Share Your Solution

Your message might also lie in providing a solution to a challenge that the audience faces.

What’s a struggle that you’ve had to overcome? A problem that you’ve had to tackle? What there a specific solution you uncovered that helped you, that you’re convinced would help the rest of the world?

Here’s an example:

Have you found it difficult to pay attention? How you found that you’re always feeling stressed? Overworked? And unable to stay focused and present?

If you’re like most people, you probably answered yes to the above questions. Which is why Andy Puddicombe – a man who left college midway through a sports science degree to become a monk – has made it his calling to help people restore mindfulness.

What about you? What’s something you’ve discovered – no matter how small – that you think would benefit the audience listening to you? If you genuinely believe in the power of the thing you’ve discovered, then it’s your duty to share it with the world.

Tip 3: Delight Them with Your Discovery

If you’re a keen scholar or observer of human nature, you might have discovered a pattern to the way in which the world functions.

Perhaps you undertook a formal course of study. Or maybe it was informal observation and experience. But somehow, and in someway, you’ve uncovered a pattern into why things are the way they are. Or perhaps a pattern that suggests how things will be.

Patterns are particularly fascinating. And being able to codify those patterns could make for a very useful speech. In fact, it’s exactly what Simon Sinek did in his TEDx talk, which has since racked up over 10 million views on the original view:

Tip 4: Show Them The Future

If you’re working on a project or technology that will shape the future, then this makes for a particularly fascinating TED talk.

In his presentation, Pranav Mistry got a standing ovation for his talk on the thrilling potential of SixthSense technology . He gave his audience a glimpse into the future by demonstrating how his SixthSense device would allow people to browse the Internet on any surface, create a telephone keypad on their palm and draw on any surface:

Because it was such an exciting and new topic, Pranav had the audience hooked into his talk right from the start:

Now that you’ve learned how to choose your TED Talk topic, let’s move on to the next part of your process: how to write a TED Talk outline.

How to Write A TED Talk Outline

The right outline consists of:

• A clear and engaging speech structure
• A compelling opening
• A body that that drives home your main point
• A powerful conclusion with a call to action
• Visual aids that will complement your talk

Let’s look at each of those in more detail:

Selecting Your Speech Structure

The second stage is to figure out an appropriate structure for your talk.

The mistake most presenters make is that they structure the message in the way that happened to them. Example:

• I did this. Then I did that. And I found this problem. Then I tried this. And it worked.

See how that’s a very speaker-centered structure?

While that linear progression might make sense, there are many other presentation structures that you can use. Structures that are more  audience-centered.  Here are two of the most common ones:

• The problem / solution speech structure
• The step-by-step speech structure

Let’s have a look at these in turn:

Tip 5: Outline Using A “Problem-Solution” Speech Structure

In his fascinating presentation, Sir Ken Robinson uses a loose version of the problem/solution structure.

For example, most of his speech focuses on the problem with the current educational system.

Here’s a paragraph from the first half of his speech:

Tip 6: Outline Using A “Step-By-Step” Speech Structure

In this speech structure, you logically walk your audience through the different steps towards an event.

For example, in her TED talk on domestic violence, Leslie Morgan Steiner walks her audience through the different stages in a domestic violence relationship.

Tip 7: Outline Using A “3-Part” Speech Speech

Another very popular way to structure a TED Talk is to use a “3-part” structure.

With this structure, you make 3 main points. For example, you can see Steve Jobs using this structure as an outline in his 2005 Stanford Commencement Address when he says:

“ Today, I want to tell you three stories from my life…”

Simon Sinek also uses this 3-part speech structure in his TED Talk to make his key points:

Here’s what Simon Sinek’s TED Talk outline might have looked like:

• Opening: Use questions to engage the audience
• PART 1 : Story about Apple + key point
• PART 2 : Story about Samuel Langley vs. Wright Brothers + key point
• PART 3 : Story about Martin Luther King + key point
• Closing : Emphasize the main point, “start with why”

Of course, the above is a very simplified version of the outline. But you can see that it follows a very distinct 3-part structure.

Develop An Irresistible Opening

Now that you’ve figured out the right structure and outline for your TED Talk, we can move into developing a powerful opening for the talk.

The opening of your TED talk is one of the most important parts of your presentation:

It sets the tone for the rest of your presentation.

Here are two great tactics you can choose from:

Tip 8: Start with a story.

A story is a great tactic to grab attention and get transport the audience into your mental movie.

For example, this is exactly what Susan Cain does to open her TED Talk:

For more storytelling tools, here are 7 storytelling tactics and how to use them

Tip 9: Start with a series of questions which creates curiosity.

Notice how Simon Sinek hooks the TED audience in with a series of questions that ignites your imagination.

If you want to learn how to present like TED, then you need to embrace using more rhetorical questions in your presentation.

Build A Compelling and Convincing Argument in the Body of Your Presentation

Building out the body of your presentation could entail:

• Providing examples
• Anchoring your points with statistics and data
• Using analogies to make a point
• And many more…

However, in this post, let’s explore two common ways to build out a presentation like TED:

Tip 10: Build the Story with the Sitation-Complication-Resolution Framework

In his TED talk on “Choice, Happiness and Spaghetti Sauce”, Gladwell brings to life the story of Dr. Howard Moskowitz.

To do so, he uses a simple yet powerful storytelling framework called SCR: Situation-Complication-Resolution

• Situation: Pepsi came to Howard and asked him to figure out the perfect concentration of aspartame for a Diet Pepsi
• Complication: Howard does the analysis, and the data doesn’t make any sense
• Resolution: One day, while mulling over the data, Howard suddenly realizes that there is no such thing as a single perfect Diet Pepsi

Watch the talk and you’ll see this Situation-Complication-Resolution structure at play:

Tip 11: Draw on Academic Research to Build Your Argument

Using academic studies to back up your point not only anchors your point, but also adds credibility to it. Research studies, if told well, are usually very fascinating because they arouse people’s curiosity.

Consider the following portion of Dan Pink’s TED talk, where he talks about Dan Ariely’s research .

Research studies by nature try to answer questions.

Thus, an explanation of the research study followed by the words “What happened?” raises the audience’s curiosity.

If you are able to use an academic study in your speech to anchor your point, use it.

Explain the study in the form of a story, and use rhetorical questions to build people’s curiosity before you reveal the results.

Ending with A Clear and Compelling Call to Action

The final piece of a great TED Talk is a call to action.

What do you want your audience to think, feel or do differently as a result of your presentation?

In fact, the entire point of giving a talk in the first place is to drive change .

The change could be in how the audience does something. Or the way in which they look at something.

What’s the change that you want to drive with your talk?

Every part of your talk – from each story to statistic – should be built to drive that change.

Tip 13: State what you want the audience to do differently

For example, in her now scientifically-debunked TED Talk on body language , Amy Cuddy clearly states her call to action: “try power posing”:

“So I want to ask you first, you know, both to try power posing, and also I want to ask you to share the science, because this is simple…”

Leslie Morgan Steiner, in her talk, states her clear call to action in her talk on domestic violence:

“Recognize the early signs of violence and conscientiously intervene, deescalate it, show victims a safe way out. Together we can make our beds, our dinner tables and our families the safe and peaceful oases they should be. Thank you

Using Visual Aids that Will Add, Not Distract, From the Presenter

OK, so far in your journey to present like a TED Talk, you have discovered:

• How to create a powerful opening
• How to craft the perfect conclusion for the talk

Now, you may need to consider whether or not to use visual aids.

It’s important to note that visuals aids are exactly as the name implies. They’re visuals for the audiences; not speaker notes for you!

The most common form of visual aid is a presentation slide deck . But before you start building your slides, consider whether you even need one to start with.

For example, speakers like Simon Sinek, Sir Ken Robinson and Malcolm Gladwell use no slides at all! And they have some of the most viral TED talks of all time. I believe this is partly because not using slides means that the audience can focus fully on them (instead of having to read what’s on the slide).

However, if you are going to be using visual aids, here’s what you need to consider:

Tip 14: Use a prop as a visual aid

Notice how Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor uses a  real human brain  as a prop to explain what’s she talking about:

Could she have simply used a slide showing a picture of a human brain?

Would it have been as effective?

Using a real human brain adds shock value that gets the audience to keep paying attention. And it also allows her to interact with the brain in a way that makes the whole talk more concrete for the audience.

Tip 15: If using a slide, make it visual

You do not want your audience reading your slides.

More importantly, you – as the speaker, do not want to be reading your slide.

You want your slides to be  visual  aids that complement what you are saying, not compete with what you’re saying.

What this means is that your slides should be mostly pictures, with as minimal text as possible.

Here’s a good example:

In her TED talk about escaping poverty, Jacqueline Novogratz displays photos of a slum she visited in Kenya.

The photos make the situation much more real for the audience and help them understand the poverty in Kenya because they can see proof of it.

Click the video below and it’ll play at the part with the slide:

Summary: How to Present like a TED Talk

Those are the elements that will help you become a powerful and persuasive speaker:

• Uncover your message – build your talk around a message that’s useful, interesting and worth sharing
• Structure your talk so that it’s clear and easy to follow
• Craft a compelling opening that’ll captivate audiences – start with a story, a startling statistic, or a series of questions
• Build the body of your presentation – use stories, case studies, research, examples, and statistics
• End with a clear and compelling call to action – state what you want the audience to do, think or feel differently and paint the vision of a better future
• Use visual aids that will complement your speech , rather than competing with you

Books To Level Up Your TED Talk Presentation Skills

If you are interested in some resources on TED Talks presentation skills books, then I recommend:

• TED Talks: The Official Guide to Public Speaking by Chris Anderson
• How to Deliver a Great TED Talk by Akash Karia
• TED Talks Storytelling by Akash Karia

Take the Next Step: Coaching / Workshops?

Hi, I’m  Akash . I’m an introvert turned communication keynote speaker and wellbeing keynote speaker .

I’ve been invited to speak in 15 countries, with clients including the executive team at Gucci, leaders at Sony Pictures, managers at Ernst & Young, and government members in Dubai.

In 2024, I was ranked the # 14 communication guru globally (Global Gurus, 2024). If you’d like to explore my 1:1 coaching programs or corporate keynotes and workshops, then please get in touch and I’d be happy to have a conversation:

#1: One-on-one Coaching:  Whether you’re gearing up for an important presentation, want to level up your communication skills or prep for an interview, I can help.  Please apply here for coaching.

#2: Corporate Programs:  Looking for an engaging and transformative keynote or workshop for your event? My programs on communication, resilience and storytelling training for leaders may be a fit.   Get in touch here and I’ll email you the details. 

Full list of TED Talk Speakers Referenced in this guide:

• Jill Bolte Taylor
• Andy Puddicombe
• Simon Sinek
• Ken Robinson
• Leslie Morgan Steiner
• Pranav Mistry
• Barry Schwartz
• Malcolm Gladwell
• Jacqueline Novogratz

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