The document provides guidelines and specifications for speakers presenting at TEDxBITSGoa. It congratulates speakers on being selected to share their ideas. It explains that TEDxBITSGoa aims to share stories that deserve to be heard but have been lost. Speakers will present to a select audience, and their talks may be viewed online by thousands. The document provides background on TED and TEDxBITSGoa, preparation tips, technical specifications for slides, and the schedule for the event day.

1. Speaker Toolkit
Guide to pulling off a successful presentation at TEDxBITSGoa

2. Congratulations! We are thrilled that you and your ideas will be a part of TEDxBITSGoa : This is my
Story.
We were overwhelmed with the variety of choices we came across. The number of unheard stories
in India is an unending plethora. Ultimately, we invited you because we believe in your ability to
communicate the richness, importance and relevance of your story to an interdisciplinary audience,
and we find that your story strikes at the heart of TED’s overall mission: you’ve got an idea worth
spreading.
You will be presenting to a select and high profile audience ranging from students, corporate
officials, non-profit officials, educationists and from abroad as your talk will be accessible online
and in podcast form, and may even end up on TED.com where most talks are viewed at least
100,000 times, and some even have several million views. Take a minute to think about that.
Don’t worry though. The team behind TEDxBITSGoa is here to offer full support, and we’ve built
tools and a timeline to help you develop the best talk of your young lives. You should never
hesitate to approach us with any of your concerns or feedback; we’re learning too. We aren’t your
boss, we’re your ally. The success of TEDxBITSGoa depends on our collective ability to bring out the
best in everyone.
In this package, you’ll find a short background guide to TED and TEDxBITSGoa, preparation tips, the
TEDx Commandments, event specifications, and technological specifications.
For promotional purposes, please keep in mind that this event is independently organized under a
license from TED. It is not TED but TEDx. Please do not make that confusion when you’re spreading
your exciting news.
Congratulations once again!
Sincerely,
Sarthak Pranit,
Curator | TEDxBITSGoa
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3. Table of contents
Welcome………………….................
Background………………………………
Our theme……………………………….
Preparation………………………………
TEDx commandments……………...
Technical Specifications……………
Event Specifications………………….
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4. Background
TED and TEDxBITSGoa
Our secret dream is to help to make Portugal a better place for all.
If you’ve made it this far, you probably have a good sense of what TED and TEDxBITSGoa are. We’ll
skip most of the background, but to summarize, TED is an event based on the mantra of “ideas
worth spreading”. Similarly, TEDxBITSGoa aims to bring forth the experiences of people of different
walks of life. It aims at sharing those stories that have lost themselves in the hustle on the present
day, stories that deserve to be listened to.
If you’re eager to know more, brush up on some history at:
■ TED: http://www.ted.com
■ TEDx: www.ted.com/tedx
■ TEDxBITSGoa: www.tedxbitsgoa.com
Quick facts about ■ TEDxBITSGoa:
■ TEDxBITSGoa is one of the first instances of a TEDx event in India organized by an
educational institution.
■ Our project began on the fall of 2009 with a small group of Undergradutes trying to bring
about a certain change in the perception of the students regarding talks. Our first TEDx
event was held under the theme “Inspiring Innovation”
■ Our team has expanded to include more than 20 volunteers who assist us immensely with
our planning.
■ We made it an immediate priority to focus on the stories of Incredible India and its
people, projects and ideas. While we’ve brought in some exciting people from the faculty
and alumni network, our focus is on you.
■ TED has provided us with the operating license. This event is thus independently
organized without their supervision or financial assistance.
■ Our vision is to bring about a change in the monotonous perspective of the common
Indian and inculcate inspiration, due to which we wanted to share your story with the
audience.
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5. Our Theme
This is my story
Believe it or not, it took us weeks to come up with a theme. In the end, while travelling through the
Mumbai local, pondering over the more-than-six-million stories that go unheard in the city every
day, we arrived at something broad but, pertinent to a TEDx event. Our theme, “This is my story”,
means that we expect each TEDxTalk (a) to be experience-oriented; (b) to have an emotional as
well as logical angle; and above all (c) to be motivating for our audience. Quite simply, ideas in a
story empower. A good idea properly leveraged and properly presented in a story, can have an
immense effect on our future.
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6. Preparation
Your TEDxBITSGoa Talk
 Setting out: Let’s set one thing
straight: TED presenters might make their
TEDTalks look effortless, but there are
hours of thinking, preparing, practicing,
slide revision, and memorization involved
behind each spectacular Talk. We expect
the same level of commitment from you.
 Developing your content:
Your TEDxTalk should be focused and
sharp. It should go deep rather than broad.
It should include visuals that develop your
ideas, rather than distract from your
purpose. It can include unique aspects of
your personal experience or projects, but
these examples should be powerful,
illuminating and succinct. There is
absolutely no toleration for corporate,
political, or religious plugs from stage.
That is an abuse of the TEDx platform.
 Timing: TEDTalks don’t run longer
than 18 minutes. At TEDxBITSGoa,
however, some talks will be even shorter.
Everybody’s case will be a bit different, but
presenters should expect to fit their
presentation into 8, 12, or 18 minutes. We
will be very strict on presentation times.
(Follow the training guide for further details)
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7. The TED Commandments…….deciphered!!
1. Dream big. Strive to create the best talk you have ever given.
2. Show us the real you. Share your passions, your dreams…and also your fears. Be vulnerable.
Speak or failure as well as success.
3. Make the complex plain. Don’t try to dazzle intellectually. Don’t speak in abstractions. Explain!
Give examples. Tell stories. Be specific.
4. Connect with people’s emotions. Make us laugh! Make us cry!
5. Don’t flaunt your ego. Don’t boast. It’s the surest way to switch everyone off.
6. No selling from the stage! Unless we have specifically asked you to, do not talk about your
company or organization. And don’t even think about pitching your products or services or
asking for funding from stage.
7. Feel free to comment on other speakers, to praise or to criticize. Controversy energizes!
Enthusiastic endorsement is powerful!
8. If possible, don’t read your talk. Notes are fine. But if the choice is between reading or rambling,
then read!
9. You must end your talk on time. Doing otherwise is to steal time from the people that follow
you. We won’t allow it.
10. Rehearse your talk in front of a trusted friend…for timing, for clarity, for impact.
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8. Technical Specifications
Things to keep in mind while
formulating your slides
Your Powerpoint, Keynote, or PDF presentation (only supported formats) will be run off our
laptops and projected onto a screen behind you, unless you require something different for
your presentation.
Please refer to these specs as guidelines.
 Image Size
Please design your presentation to fit within any of the following specifications:
 WIDESCREEN HD (16:9 aspect ratio) : 1920x1080 (hi res)
 WIDESCREEN HD (16:9 aspect ratio) : 1280x720 (low res)
 SQUARESCREEN (4:3 aspect ratio) : 1024x768 (hi res)
 SQUARESCREEN (4:3 aspect ratio) : 800x600 (low res)
 Title Safe
Please keep a 10%-20% margin (from the slide border) around your text, much as you
would when typing on a piece of paper. This ensures that everyone will be able to read
your slides.
 Text Size
You rarely need more than six lines of text on a slide. Often, only a line or two will do.
Think of text as an image.
Slide image size Minimum Font Size
1024 x 768 28 pts
800 x 600 24 pts
1920 x 1080 (wide) 40 pts
1280 x 720 (wide) 28 pts
 Text Clarity
Sans-serif fonts (like Helvetica) are easier to read at a distance than serif fonts (like
Times New Roman). To avoid last-minute glitches with your presentation onsite, try to
use fonts that are widely available like Arial, or Times New Roman.
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9.  Background
A simple, elegant background behind your text should be used to complement and
enhance the readability of your words. If using a dark or black background, you may
want to make the text bold.
 Graphs, Graphics and Photos
Use high-resolution pictures and graphics. Full-quality photos from a digital camera will
look better than images pulled off the web. You must properly license all images for
TED’s use in worldwide video and web distribution. You can grab images from the web
(flickr.com, and others) but they should be licensed under Creative Commons or from
the author for use. For data graphs or charts, be sure to follow the minimum font size
guidelines on the previous page for all text, including labels on x- and y-axes and data
points.
 Five presentations featuring clean, crisp, effective design that worked live at TED, and
also online.
 John Doerr - Profit and Salvation in Greentech (2007)
http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/128
 Al Gore - 15 Ways to Avert a Climate Crisis (2006) http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/1
 Larry Lessig - Creativity and the Law (2007) http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/187
 Erin McKean - Redefining the Dictionary (2007) http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/161
 Rives - 4 a.m. (2007) http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/148
 Rives – John Hodgman’s (from Apple’s advertisements) talks about his strange story in
the Algarve (2008) http://www.ted.com/talks/john_hodgman_s_brief_digression.html
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10. Event Specification
February 19th, 2012 is the day!
TEDxBITSGoa begins at 10:00 a.m. sharp on February, 2012 in Auditorium, BITS Pilani, KK Birla
Goa Campus, Goa and will run until 8:30 p.m. We will have generous 30-minute coffee-breaks
between each session. There will be between three and five presenters in each presentation
block. Following the last session, there will be a Dinner open to selected participants that will
run about 90 minutes.
We expect you to stay for the whole conference and dinner, unless there are extenuating
circumstances beyond your control. We also expect that you are prepared to converse with
audience members about the Talks during the breaks.
During the event, you will be seated in the audience and will enter the stage from the floor. TED
Audiences are just as diverse and experienced as the presenters, and we want to make
TEDxBITSGoa a relaxing environment where everyone feels comfortable exchanging ideas.
Schedule of the day (can be subjected to change)
9:30 - 10:00 Introduction
10:00 - 11:30 First session
11:30 - 12:00 Morning Coffee-break
12:00 - 13:30 Second session
13:30 - 15:00 Lunch
15:00 - 16:30 Third Session
16:30 - 17:00 Afternoon Coffee-break
17:00 - 18:30 Fourth Session
19:30 - 21:00 TEDxBITSGoa Dinner
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11. This TEDx event is independently organized.
This independent TEDx event is operated under a
license from TED.
TEDxBITSGoa is an initiative of students of
BITS Pilani, KK Birla Goa Campus.
Email: sarthak@tedxbitsgoa.com
www.tedxbitsgoa.com
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