So… you’ve been confirmed as a presenter at TEDxLFHS 2020? Fantastic! You’re probably already aware that all our presenters will be reviewed by the staff at the main TED Conference, so this is an opportunity for your talk to be promoted through the TED.com website.

​"Help us to help you… give the best presentation of your life!"

We’ve prepared a slide deck template for you (below), and we have volunteers available to assist in locating images or creating graphs. Please take advantage of our template, and start to submit drafts of your presentation as soon as possible! Your presentation needs to pass through several layers of approval before you can appear on-stage, so the sooner this starts the better. Please take care to review all the guidelines and requirements. It will take a few minutes, but this is important!
  • Speaker Notes
  • Best Practices
  • Reminders
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  • Please create your presentations in these themes, and submit them for review no later than March 11th, 2019.
  • TEDxLFHS takes seriously its responsibility to verify the validity and peer-reviewed status of all numerical or scientific statements, as well as the legality and copyright status of all creative works incorporated – including images.
  • Remember, your slides will appear in the videos which are produced and released to the TEDx YouTube channel. They may live on indefinitely, so it’s in your interests as well as ours to ensure the best possible content.
  • Displaying a corporate logo in a promotional capacity is not allowed at any time. (You may show company logos to illustrate a point, but not to advertise them. For instance, showing logos for Facebook and Twitter to supplement a discussion about social media is reasonable. However, if you work for Facebook, you may not brand all your slides with a Facebook logo – that would constitute advertising.)
  • It is vital that a draft is received by our team no later than March 11th, 2019, because the final days before the conference will be too late for changes.
  • No “last-minute” changes or additions will be permitted, because our team must have time to comment, provide assistance, and perform any technical file conversions necessary.
  • You will not be able to use your laptop, USB drive, or other media on the day of the conference. Instead, it is best for you to spend the final days before the event rehearsing the presentation you’ve already got.
  • Keep the quantity of text on each slide to a minimum.
  • Try  to avoid bullet points, but if you use them, aim for no more than three (3) bullets per slide. Even better is to make just one point at a time.
  • Better still are single images, one at a time – compelling photos or meaningful graphs.
  • Use very large fonts (we suggest 72-128 points, and seriously try hard to avoid less than 60pt).
  • Remember, the presentation is on a WIDE-screen display (16:9 ratio, or 1920×1080, full HD). If you are using elements from a previous presentation of yours, and have difficulty adapting it to our dimensions, ask our team for assistance as soon as possible.
  • Everyone, including the back row, must be able to read every word.
  • DO NOT use ‘transitions’ – they are often tiresome and they tend to be represented poorly in video.
  • DO NOT use “builds,” where parts of a slide are revealed gradually, best to make a separate slide for each stage of the build.
  • There will be no podium. You will have a remote control for your presentation and there will be no objects between you and the audience (apart from the two displays at your feet.)
  • We strongly recommend that you only display text slides after speaking their contents. If you show text and then read it, the audience has gotten through it faster than you, and you’ll start boring them. Trust us, don’t read your own slides; it’s terrible.
  • The best use of slides will REMIND the audience of the point you just made, or to ILLUSTRATE an idea in a way that can’t be spoken. (A portrait might show the intensity of an emotional drama, or a graph could conveying the significance of numerical data).
  • Slides can also be used as PLACEHOLDERS describing the arc of your presentation’s content. (For instance, the first slide might say: “A journey of three cities”, then the second could be “1. London”, followed by “2. Paris” and “3. Rome”, over the course of your talk. In this way the text helps to frame your subject matter and to focus any wandering minds.)
  • All images must be either your own, or Creative Commons with Non-Commercial Derivative Attribution rights, or else licensed and CREDITED to the source.
  • Video, or anything which plays audio, MUST be submitted far in advance. (Our theatre crew must run sound checks, etc.)
  • Remember, the display will be 20′ wide and full HD (1920×1080 pixels). Do not scale up small images for your slides, because they will look bad! Make sure you use high resolution images.
  • If you would like assistance in locating images suitable to supplement your presentation, please notify the TEDxLFHS team as soon as possible.
  • We can also help to create graphs for your data, including line graphs, pie charts, and the standard visual idioms. If you would like assistance, please let us know right away so we can match your needs with one of our team members.
  • You will not be able to attach your laptop to our A/V system.
  • You will not be able to bring a flash drive or other media for your talk.
  • It is super important to submit your slideshow presentations by  Monday, March 9th, so that we can still have the last few days to make any necessary changes.

​The most compelling TED Talks are typically rehearsed in their entirety around 50-100 times. Yes, literally. Start to finish. The whole thing. You can’t overdo it – even if you’re an experienced public speaker. The more you’ve memorized your presentation, the more you can relax on-stage and let your personality through. When the content is automatic, your passion will make you shine!
Please don’t take offense at the strictness of the deadlines – it’s a matter of protection for us all. Even if you’re certain your presentation is perfect, don’t you want us to check that your fellow presenters are as good as you are? So we need to review everything carefully. It’s not a slight against you, it’s just part of what it means to be involved with a very carefully curated event.

We’re proud to have you as a participant, and we know that with all our hard work, it will be a spectacular conference!