Peter Scott, Empathetic AI: Unlocking Trust Between Humans and Machines
“At dress rehearsal, I told everyone of a sign I saw online: ‘We do this not because it is easy, but because we thought it would be easy.’ TEDx will be more work than you ever thought it could be, but by the end of it, you’ll be a different person. There is me before TEDx and there’s me after. And it shoved me over the line from wannabe speaker to professional speaker and destroyed my imposter syndrome.”
Watch Peter Scott’s TEDx Talk.
Jared Throneberry, Aligning Values: A Life of Intentionality and Purpose
“TED has been a dream of mine and on the to-do list of the things I want to accomplish. One day out of the blue, here comes a message that says, ‘My name is Amanda and I’d like to arrange a TEDx for Old Hickory.’ I just about lost my mind! But it wasn’t just luck. You have to be in the right place at the right time, but you have to continually work on your craft and those doors will open. I felt like I earned my spot—I’ve been in Toastmasters since 2007 and am very involved with the local community. But TEDx helped me realize that I would’ve been limited in thinking that my ceiling was TED. After [the TEDx video] was published, there was a big “what’s next?” question. And I used my TEDx experience to set me up for my next goal—to be a professional motivational speaker.”
Watch Jared Throneberry’s TEDx Talk.
Jimmy Thai, How to Build 100 Schools for 1
“People make the mistake that a TED Talk is what will make you famous—that’s not the purpose of TED. And what I’ve also discovered is that that’s not the mission of Toastmasters either. The mission is, how can you use that voice to save the world?
When I came to TED, I really wanted to promote my foundation, not myself. I want to be the voice for the voiceless children. Before TED I already had some traction—eight schools in the first year—but I wanted to spread the idea through a TED talk and encourage people to take action [now 140 schools in 7 years]. Your TED talk might have 500 views, but if those 500 people go out and do something, it’s better than a TEDx talk that gets 5 million views but people do nothing.”
Watch Jimmy Thai’s TEDx Talk.