TED is a Team Sport: Hegde Credits Colleagues with Talk's Success
TED is a Team Sport: Hegde Credits Colleagues with Talk's Success
Dr. Ashok Hegde’s talk for TEDxGeorgiaCollege was named a TED “Editor’s Pick.” Less than 1% of TEDx talks earn that designation, but Hegde is quick to point out that his successful TEDx experience “did not happen in a vacuum.”
It takes a dedicated team to produce a TED speaker’s moment on the stage, sharing their ideas and expertise with the audience. Here is a behind the scenes look at TEDxGeorgiaCollege in Dr. Hegde’s own words.
M y successful TEDx talk was possible because of the dedication of GCSU’s faculty and staff to the liberal arts education and the bright students who joyfully embrace that education.
I had a germ of an “idea worth spreading,” but the TEDxGeorgiaCollege team helped me get it ready for prime time. Dr. Harold Mock does a superb job of organizing the TEDx talks. He is there with you from the beginning to the end. Under his leadership, TEDxGeorgiaCollege runs like a well-oiled machine.
Everyone on the team also pursues excellence in what they are doing to realize the event. Even before any of my preparations for my TEDx talk began, Anna Leavitt did a photo shoot and took such great photos of me that I was over the moon. I never knew I was so photogenic (because the selfies I take always come out ugly).
Jane Kidd helped me tighten the text of my script and this allowed me to remove redundancies. I couldn’t have asked for a better speech coach than Dr. Steve Elliot-Gower. I knew him already, and because of that we had a great working relationship. Under his gentle guidance, my TEDx talk evolved from mere recitation of words into a performance which you see in the video.
Our no-nonsense producer Genie Snyder Chamberlin didn’t leave anything to chance. We knew exactly what we were going to do on the day of TEDx because she helped iron out all the wrinkles we found during the dress rehearsal a day before.
Earlier that week, we did tech rehearsal with Keith Bergeron, who is a magician with a camera. I liked Keith before, but then my liking multiplied when he suggested I wear my favorite shirt for the event (the one you see me wearing in the video).
Throughout the process, Amelia McEwen tirelessly worked to help prepare my slides for the talk. On the day of TEDx, student volunteers Emily and Sydney were so courteous and helpful that they made me feel like a celebrity.
I also want to take this opportunity to give a shout out to my fellow TEDx speakers. I am extremely proud of the three GCSU undergraduates who were among the eight speakers: Chloe Melton, Carly Walker and Paige Blakemore. If you want to see GCSU’s liberal arts education in action, please watch their talks. My fellow Bobcat Amanda Rutter gave a great talk. Our other established guest speakers – Kimberly Murray, Queen Sheba and David Weil – also gave excellent talks.
During the intermission on the day of the TEDx talks, I got to mingle with the audience. Several complete strangers came up to me and said they enjoyed my talk. Because people outside of GCSU are not obligated to like my talk, that made me very happy! One young woman said that she was going to make use of my advice at her work. The adulation I was receiving from the members of the audience was exhilarating.
So, I concluded that it was a satisfactory day. That evening, when I was walking to my car, my protégé Avery Halseth, who had attended my talk in person, shouted from across the parking lot, “I am proud to call you my mentor!”
Avery is like my grandmother; she always keeps me honest. So, I was thinking … if Avery said those words, my talk must have been really good. Before this smugness could seep deep into my head, as I was opening the door to my car, she said in a loud voice, “Behave!” That made my day because it was the biggest positive "prediction error" I felt that day.