Hacking the Red Circle

Sarah Spang is a first-time TEDx organizer. Her team is working hard for an event that will happen in August of 2017. Her Taste of TEDx story begins with a visit from TEDxFargo's organizer, Greg Tehven.

She visited TEDxOshkosh in 2016 with a few friends from the community and met others from Fond Du Lac at the event. This coincidence encouraged her to take the plunge and apply for a license to produce a TEDx in her town. She's a community organizer, full-time student, and holds down a day job as well. What's that cliche that suggests if you want something done, ask a busy person to do it. That's Sarah.

Her exuberant spirit and attitude are clearly evident in this conversation. She's in love with her town, and the mission to bring TEDx to the community is a driving force that helps her get things done.

Daniel Cerventus is a long time TEDx organizer and the founding curator of TEDxKL. Daniel is also the TEDx ambassador for SouthEast Asia. He started in 2009 with 50 people and has produced events every year. He's a bundle of energy and has a long-term vision for TEDx in the region.

As an Ambassador, he's part of a much large team of organizers that help each other be successful and share best practices. One of the keys to success is how well you build partnerships outside your community - these relationships help you as you assist them with their events

When he visited TEDxTaipai, run by Jason, he was inspired and came back to Kuala Lumpur knowing that they had to up their game. Since then his inspiration has come from India, Tokyo, Singapore and early conversations with Lara Stein, the original head of TEDx.

DK and Hannah Wignall jointly run TEDxWellington and do they have a story to tell. This event has been going for five years, and in 2016 they decided to see how much their community trusted them. This strategy was rewarded when the tickets sold out in less than 2 minutes. Seriously.

The story of the 2016 TEDxWellington event is captivating. What the team did to make manifest the Trust theme is a compelling story. How they wove the elements together is intriguing and will give you many ideas. Imagine what you would do if an impossible-to-book venue were suddenly made available to you.

Look at the short reel they've put together to announce their 2017 show, Perspectives, and you'll get a sense of how this team looks at things differently.

Greg Tehven, the Curator of TEDxFargo, has an infectious enthusiasm for his town and community. He loves finding ways to make the Speaker experience world-class. He's mantra: Build the Community You Want to Live In.

There's a lot to learn from Greg and his approach to his event. His emphasis is how to have the most impactful use of tome and money while creating a compelling event.

His origin story included rallying the town to fight a flood and was introduced to the world of TED with the Malcolm Gladwell TED Talk about spaghetti.

Listen as he recalls three stories about Speakers who launched ideas on the stage and what's become of them since their Talk was delivered. These stories clearly illustrate what can happen when everything comes together to propel an idea into the Universe.

Kevin Rabinovich has been working with TEDx since 2011 when he was 13. His story of how he's united 50 high schools in the state of South Carolina is inspiring. He started watching talks in the 4th grade and is now a mentor at 19.

He's the very example of on the job training, having worked on six TEDx events and being the organizer for the past four years. He believes that producing an event by youth, and for youth, provides a unique opportunity for time-stressed students to share ideas. He says that there's not a venue for idea-sharing for this age group. We love their concept of IDEA GRANTS.

When I asked Kevin about his superpower, he wasn't keen on admitting one, rather he said, "I'm accidentally good at a lot of what it takes I guess." Right. Another organizer that makes me feel like a slacker. I asked him what impact the TEDx experience has had on his life, "I now realize how important ideas are to society, and it's gotten me to look at many different career options that I'd never have considered before."

Herbert is a longtime TEDster and the original licensee of TEDxPSU at Pennsylvania State University. They are one of the first 100 TEDx's and annually produce an event for 800 with 2,000 viewing online.

Herbert is a Creative Director at the University and works as the Faculty Advisor with a revolving door of students on the team. Over the years they've developed a technique of interviewing, shadowing and mentoring that has the effect of providing continuity across years.

One of the benefits of working on this TEDx is that the entire team travels to TEDxMidAtlantic three months before their event to be inspired and study from a TEDx that is acknowledged as being one of the best.

This episode features Michelle Serna, the organizer of TEDxSalinas. Her passion for her hometown is evident in how she's approached TEDxSalinas. She gave her first TEDx talk at 16, her second at 17 and executive produced her first TEDx at 18. Slacker.

On June 9th she graduated from high school and left the ceremony early to catch a plane to TEDxDonauinsel in Austria, where she spoke. She decided to stay for a month, solo and attended 2 TEDx events (Greece and London) based on people she met. I love her wanderlust spirit. You will too.

Michelle is in love with her hometown and thinks that there's a significant opportunity to feature TEDx talks about agriculture. She told me that Salinas grows a lot of the world's food, and 30% of the world's lettuce. Maybe her TEDx will provide 50% of the world's ideas about agriculture.

Katy Yam is well known in the TEDx Universe. You'll see her and her team at any number of East Coast TEDx events, learning and soaking in the ideas from her peers. She is wildly passionate about 'her' town, Montreal and sees TEDx as a way to celebrate the diversity of people and ideas.

After some health issues sidelined her in 2007, she found that TED Talks, just new to the internet, could boost her morale. She decided then that she wanted to move to NYC and work for TED. Instead, she found TEDxMontreal and volunteered. Look, she's now running the show with an amazing team of people.

When asked about how she motivates the team she said, "We pay people with Passion." Epic.

Jennifer Wold, a New Hampshire native, and expat living in the picturesque town of Trondheim, Norway has a unique point of view on running her TEDx. She's a classically trained French Chef, and it's clear when you listen to her that she loves order and a mise-en-place. She's thrilled to be living with her husband in a community that's 80% students.

What's different about her approach to organizing is that she doesn't consider the team volunteers, she sees them as Staff and treats them as such. There's a Head of HR on the team, job interviews, and expectations for participation. When I talked to her recently, she'd just come out of two interviews with Malaysian students who will work on the 2017 event.

Jennifer said that Trondheim is the next Silicon Valley and they have a wealth of potential speakers in Tech, Science, Medicine as a result of their being a large University in town. She calls her group the Wild Tribe, they're seven teams, and each team is a tribe in and of itself. their motto: Tribe first.

Aaron Sylvan, the Organizer of TEDxFultonStreet, has a unique perspective on his event. He's been in the startup world for most of his career and loves building who build things, like companies and ideas. He extends the slogan of TEDx to Ideas worth spreading and people worth knowing.

His event is located in the Financial District of New York City which has a growing community of entrepreneurs. His philosophy about who gets on the stage is they need to be local and have made something that's interesting - and be interesting themselves.