NINE TIPS AS YOU START YOUR TEDxBOZEMAN APPLICATION
The TEDxBozeman team is incredibly excited to start planning for the 8th Annual TEDxBozeman event. With over 70 applications each year, our selection process is extremely competitive. This year, our selection committee has come together to provide some guidance and tips as you prepare your application!
1. Get Excited and Share your Passion
As you begin to prepare your application, get excited about the idea you want to share from the TEDxBozeman stage. If you are excited, it will be much easier for our team to get excited about helping you spread your BIG IDEA. Plus, we want to get to know you, don’t shy away from the camera and let your personality shine through!
2. Drill Down to the CORE of your Idea
Our selection committee is a group of passionate individuals from a variety of disciplines; however, it is likely that we do not have expertise in your specific field, and 90 seconds is NOT a lot of time. Don’t just ramble into the camera, take some time to plan and help us by connecting your idea to the relevant research and/or impact on our community.
3. The 2019 Theme is: UNTAPPED
Each year, our coordinating team puts a lot of thought into what the theme for the annual event will be, make sure you take the time to read through the theme and connect it to your idea! We purposefully select themes that are broad in order to accommodate a diverse range of topics – be ready to think outside the box!
Don’t be scared off because you think your topic/idea doesn’t fit the theme – our number one goal when choosing speakers/performers is to put on a high-quality event with a diverse range of subject matter with relevancy to the Bozeman community!
4. Break It Down
In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TED has created a program called TEDx. TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. Our event is called TEDxBozeman, where x = independently organized TED event. With this in mind, we are looking for ideas that are relevant to our Bozeman community!
In addition to your idea, we want to know what impact your topic has on our community and are looking to hear what is the single takeaway that you want our audience (and online viewers) to walk away with.
5. Why are You Uniquely Qualified to Give THIS Talk?
One of the questions we have our selection committee consider for EVERY application is: Is this applicant the correct person to give this specific talk? In other words, we want to know why you are uniquely qualified to talk on the proposed subject – is it your research, degree, professional experience, travels, life experiences, etc. Let us know what makes you an authority on the subject!
6. Stick to the Time Limit: 90 Second Pitch
With over 70 applications to go through, we need the pitches to be short, concise, and to the point! We know that 90 seconds is not that long, but we have found that the best speakers are able to relay their idea in this time frame! Pitches that go far over this limit are nearly always thrown out.
7. Stand Out – Be Professional
Spend more than 15 minutes on your application and consider the best way to relay your story to our team. Practice your application with friends, family, or colleagues, and ask them for constructive feedback!
8. Show Us Your Work!
Consider showing us your relevant work, specifically if you are an artist! Professionals and academics may also find that sharing images/photos furthers their pitch and will help us connect to your idea.
**This might not work in every pitch, use your discretion on the best way to pitch your BIG IDEA.
9. Pitch this as a FRESH IDEA
One of the quickest ways to get your application set aside is to submit a pitch that relies on the fact that you have given this talk or a very similar one to another audience. We are looking for FRESH ideas – and it will hugely benefit your application to pitch it that way! With that said, we understand that research (in particular) is something that you have been working on and speaking on for years. The fresh idea we are looking for is how you are taking your research or idea and applying it to “everyday life” in a way that our audience will be able to relate to it.
We are so looking forward to viewing your applications! If you have ANY questions about the application process, please feel to reach out to our speaker coordinators: Katya and Dalton at speakers@tedxbozeman.com.
Again, thank you for your interest in TEDxBozeman!
