TED Talks

by Kathie Niesen, CMP

Lately I have been fascinated with TED talks. Maybe it’s my background in education but it seems they have hit the pot of gold in public speaking. They have the great speakers, really relevant and timely material and in many cases are irreverent about it.

I have been aware of TED talks for some time but I really became hooked when I saw the TED talk given by Monica Lewinski in March. This is a woman whom I gave very little thought to except for of course what she was famous for, almost costing the presidency for Bill Clinton. I was fascinated by her ability to talk about this topic with an irony that was remarkable. For the first time I thought about how this brief episode in her life affected her, her future, her family and friends and her life. And although people have been bullied forever, this really brought it to the forefront in my mind.

Since then I have watched many talks on a variety of subjects given by really interesting people. People whom I probably would never have heard of or been interested in if not for TED.

And TED is so cool. Their website is well laid out, easy to follow and just puts it on the line. The casual Friday of websites.  Take a spin around it sometime (www.ted.com) whoever laid it out thinks like me and not a web design expert.

And they don’t discriminate, it doesn’t have to be new or trendy, it just has to be intelligent. It’s all about starting a conversation and sharing ideas.  Bring us your idea their website says and lets discuss it, see if it can be a TED talk.  I am all in.



Kathie Niesen, CMP is the Owner of KMN Meetings and Events. She specialized in the planning of medical meetings, instructional design, working with volunteers and faculty development. You can contact her at [email protected]

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