Hacking the Red Circle

Retired Green Beret, Scott Mann gave a talk, Rooftop Leadership at TEDxSantaBarbara. Here's a behind-the-scenes discussion from someone inside the event, but outside the production. A unique point of view that helps you understand what your Speakers are going through as they make their road to the red circle.

Scott is a storyteller. Since he left active duty, he continues to work on leadership development with incoming soldiers with his Mann Camp project. Scott understands the power of storytelling and makes a convincing case about how important high-stakes communications are. In fact, he felt that his TEDtalk was one of the scarier things he's done in life. Really? I'd rather be in the red circle than circling in a helicopter waiting to parachute down, that's for sure.

"I'm good at pulling threads out of people's souls."

Heather Brunold has a great story to tell about how she was drafted to run TEDxPasadenaWomen last year. As a teacher, mom and consummate networker, you'll learn how she's structured the organization to meet the needs of her Community.

Heather is one of those women you meet in the TEDx world that can balance a lot of priorities. I was thrilled to have this conversation with her as I'd done a little mentoring with her last year. She did the event at one of my favorite places, The Huntington Library in Pasadena.

As with our other guests, you'll gain insight into yet another way of framing the TEDx experience, for your crew and your audience.

Mark Lovett has a lot of passion for producing TEDx events. He actively works on three, including one in prison. His story about that experience and what it took to build the first TEDx that was in two countries at the same time is fascinating.

Mark loves the effect that a TEDx event has on the audience. His personal version of the TED motto is, Ideas Worth Doing Something About.

His recounting of the way his main event, TEDxSanDiego made its way to the Symphony Hall and what it was like to orchestrate a massive presence is downtown is an inspiration to all of us.

TEDxSanDiego - TEDxMonumento258 - TEDxDonovanCorrectional

Gordon Garb has worked with TED since 2001. He volunteered to help the IT desk at the conference in Monterey. Since then he's attended 80 TEDx events. His take on what a TEDx should be about has led him on a fascinating journey.

Gordon believes that the attendees should have an active role in the event and chooses to have no speakers on his stage. Rather, he shows TEDTalk videos and then leads discussions about them.

His favorite thing about the TED ecosystem is the variety of speakers, topics and ideas and of course, as important, the diversity of the audience.

Denis, a presentation coach from Quebec, said, If I can't go to TED, TED will come to me. He'd been trying to get to the main event and finally produced a TEDx, to bring the TEDx experience to his community. He really loves creating TEDx Salons, for their intimacy.

He appreciates putting the light on ideas and speakers found in Quebec City. His approach to managing all of the stress around producing an event is to focus on staying calm.

He reminds us that the core energy of a TEDx event is the people.

TEDxQuebec

Cameron, a senior at Cal Poly University in San Luis Obispo, California, decided that 100 people for his first event wouldn't be enough. So, he went to the TEDSummit in Banff, which was a qualifying event, allowing him to remove the population cap. The event last year was sold out to 1,200 people from the Community.

He and his co-organizer volunteered to produce the second TEDx at Cal Poly after working with the team in 2015. He felt that there was so much potential and that it was a miracle he was able to find a way to Banff.

He believes in the Power of Community and attributes all of the kudos for the event to his hack, which was not pretending to know everything. Be transparent about not knowing all the answers, and be relentlessly resourceful.

TEDxCalPoly

Randy Bretz, the Organizer for TEDxLincoln, suggests that the secret to managing a TEDx is that he doesn't feel like you have to do everything, yourself. He's very comfortable asking for help. For anything and everything.

Tell us a bit about your background and your TEDx origin story.

Randy has a long history in the TV production business, which makes producing a TEDx easy for him. He started his first TEDx in 2011. A friend of his mentioned that TEDx licenses were available and he saw this as an opportunity to marry his production expertise with high-quality content.

How many TEDx events have you produced or worked with?

Randy's done six main events, 2 TEDxWomen, 2 TEDxYouth, 4 TEDxLive - viewing parties and 10 Salons.

What makes your TEDx unique?

High-quality video production with a locally oriented feel that mirrors what happens in the community of Lincoln, Nebraska

What's your superpower?

Producing

What was the biggest surprise for you while working on your event?

That there was much more to it than he thought.

Every event has its challenges, what was the biggest dragon you had to overcome?

Getting discouraged. There's so much to do; he looks for inspiration to find the energy to get through the to-do list.

What's one piece of advice you have for veteran organizers? For first-timers?

Don't do it all by yourself. Learn how to step away.

Looking forward to your next event, what excites you the most?

TEDxLincolnYouth in August 2017 and getting to work with the kids.

What's a TEDx event that you'd like to attend?

TEDxWashingtonDC

Finally, the show is called Hacking the Red Circle, so what's your best hack?

Don't be afraid to ask people to help you, or be on stage, or partner, or give you funding. Just ask.