TED Talks: The Official TED Guide to Public Speaking

This guide to effective public speaking%E2%80%94informed by the wildly popular TED (Technology, Entertainment, and Design) Talks%E2%80%94gives readers tips for winning over audiences big and small: wedding guests expecting a great toast, a client waiting to be wowed, or a lecture hall full of multitasking students. Anderson, whose nonprofit organization, the Sapling Foundation, runs TED, has a plethora of excellent advice to offer based on past TED talks, including some of the most successful and popular ones. He covers important topics such as making a personal connection with audiences, explaining complicated subjects to laypeople, priming people to accept counterintuitive ideas, and cultivating a sense of showmanship. He also addresses aspects of preparation, such as knowing what vocal styles to avoid, planning attire, and managing nervousness. The prose can be hard to muddle through%E2%80%94true to the topic, it reads more like a transcript of a speech than a book%E2%80%94but this is an invaluable guide to effective presentations, and catnip for all the TED fans out there. Agent: John Brockman, Brockman Inc. (May)