In the spirit of sharing, here are a few of my thoughts on why the day was so successful, from my perspective as director of the show. I hope they help you in planning for your TEDx:

\n

We treated TEDxSanDiego as a show, not an event. It became apparent early on that our TEDx was going to grow beyond just a few people getting together to watch a speaker or two. Our curator and co-founders put together a fantastic vision for the day, and I was lucky enough to execute that. Once we saw how big it was, there was a conscious decision to treat this as a show, not just an event, and that came through in the production quality and execution. We used confidence monitors, had countdown clocks, put together a production staff that included a show director, tech director, stage manager, presentation manager, etc. Also, having worked on the Oscars and Emmys, I know a good show is a well-timed show, which brings me to...
Create - and follow - a show rundown. In the beginning, the curator and co-founders created an spectacular agenda for the day. When I came on board about 10 weeks before the show, I took that outline and flowed it into a minute by minute rundown (based on a format used in my TV and sports days). Not only did we start on time, but we were actually running 5 minutes ahead at a few points. Our breaks started and ended right on time, and the show itself ended exactly when it was supposed to. It\'s because we had everything scheduled to the minute. Each line on our rundown includes segment time, cumulative time, activity, speaker, script, PA activities, and audio/visual notes. (I posted the template here if you would like to use it.)
Create a single point of contact for the show schedule. The key to the rundown working: 1 person owns it. (Ideally, whoever\'s calling the show.) Any updates go through said owner, which cuts down on churn and dramatically decreases the chances of anything getting lost. Another key? Lock it down at 5 p.m. the day before rehearsal. Tell folks if they have any updates after that point, they must print them out and bring you a copy. This is good for 2 reasons: 1., you get to go to bed at a decent hour (instead of people emailing you at 3 a.m. to say, \"Please update to include my changes.\") and 2. ensures no one shows up at rehearsal and says, \"Oh, well I sent that to you.\"
Have a tech rehearsal. The day before the show, we had a full cue to cue tech rehearsal. We started off with our tech load in, then marked all our speaker spots on stage, followed by our emcees running their lines. Speakers began showing up in the afternoon, some running their full talk, others just clicking through and getting a feel for the stage and the venue.
Get the speakers on the same stage...er, page. At the end of tech rehearsal, we had a formal Speaker Orientation, and went over a couple of high-level points. The biggest was timing. The best advice (which came courtesy of our Tech Director) was this: \"Hey guys, the best reason to stay on time and respect the countdown clock? That\'s the only way you\'ll get on potentially TED.com - they don\'t post talks that go over.\" (Whether or not that\'s true...it proved to be motivation enough: only 1 out of 22 went over.) We also showed them what a proper emcee to speaker (and vice versa) handoff looked like: emcee stands center stage and waits for speaker to get all the way to them before shaking hands and walking offstage. Same for when the speaker\'s done talking: wait in the middle of the stage for the emcee. It not only cements connection, but it\'s good for the audience to see that handoff. Now about speaker timing...
Have a plan for speakers who go over their time. Finally, we showed with the speakers how we were going to handle it if they went over their allotted time. I stood on stage acting as the speaker, and the emcee did her part. We told them at 0:30 over, the emcee walks onto the stage and stands down stage left (to give them a peripheral visual cue). At 1:00, the emcee walks toward them and kindly says something witty, such as, \"We could listen to you all day...\" All the speakers agreed it was a fair, elegant solution and it worked out well for us.
Stay on time. When I say we had things timed down to the second, I wasn\'t kidding. The beauty of having a timed rundown was we always knew where we stood. If things were running a minute behind, I could easily have the emcee cut out a follow-up question. If we had a little extra time, we started the breaks a little early, giving folks more time to mingle and connect.
Use the pre-recorded TED talks to come out of break. This one was key. Knowing we had a big venue, I didn\'t want there to be too much shuffling of folks getting back into their seats while the speakers were talking. So we gave a 5 minute VO warning over the PA system (accompanied by the onscreen PowerPoint counting down from 5 minutes left until 1 minute left). Then we came out of the break with the emcee introducing a pre-recorded TED talk. That worked out well, because by the time the speaker hit the stage everyone was comfortably seated, relaxed, focused, and ready to listen. And speaking of the required 25% TED talks...
Be choiceful in your TED talks. As for the order of pre-recorded TED talks, we showed the longest TED talk (18 min.) early in the day, and they got shorter as the day (and people\'s attention spans) went on. So it was 18 min. > 9 min. > 9 min. > 6 min. Also, if you do follow our Break > TED talk > Speaker format, be aware of which talk you show after lunch -- people are going to be in a food coma, so I recommend showing a funny/inspirational one. Our two 9 minute talks were Annie Lennox and Adora Svitak; Annie\'s talk is heavy and not a great post-lunch talk. We ran Adora Svitak\'s talk, and it worked like a charm. Annie\'s talk was after the first afternoon break, and worked well. Sebastian Wernicke\'s talk was after the last break, and got everyone in a great mood for the last part of the day.
Your show\'s only as good as the team that works on it. Lucky for us, we had a fantastic team. From the founders (we referred to them as Executive Producers, even if they followed the more PC TED terms of curator :) all the time) to the show day staff, each and every person was committed and passionate. We were very lucky in that we also had the privilege of working with the Sharp Healthcare event experience team. They helped elevate us from a good show to a great one. (And their answer to every question was, \"Yes.\" <- Awesome.

\n

Finally, don\'t just take our word for it. Here\'s the Twitter stream (hashtag #TEDxSD), which has a lot of beautiful, positive commentary:
http://twitter.com/search?q=%23TEDxSD

\n

Of all the shows I\'ve worked on, and events I\'ve produced, TEDxSanDiego is by far my favorite. If I may...my two favorite quotes about the day, from the speakers:

\n

\"This feels like a real, actual TED show.\" - Overheard backstage after the first break

\n

\"I\'ve never seen a show run so tightly on time. Kudos. I\'d work with you again in a heartbeat.\" - Tom Yelllin, former ABC News and biz partner of Peter Jennings

\n

I adore each and every person who I had the luck of working with on TEDxSanDiego, and miss them already. I woke up the next day with a smile on my face, and almost a week later, it\'s still there. Never underestimate the power of a small group of people with a big vision.

\n

That\'s all I\'ve got for now. If you have any questions, comments, or sarcastic remarks, please don\'t hesitate to contact me. :)

Cheers,
Kara DeFrias, M.Ed.
TEDxSanDiego Show Director
c 858.603.3625 events | c 215.262.1111 personal | t @californiakara
w http://www.californiakara.com | http://www.linkedin.com/in/defrias

\n

SustainAbilityJune 2011