TED is a platform that finds exciting speakers from around the world and shares their stories. “The magic of TED is that they find people who can give great talks. It’s not just what people often think, you have to be in your field, your industry, or something like that,” said Monique Ruff-Bell, chief program and strategist for the TED Conference. protrude. “
Skift Meetings flipped the script and put her in the spotlight at the forum.
strategic career building
“Because of my intention, focus, and work ethic, I have achieved many of the career goals I wanted to achieve. Because I have developed great relationships with people, they immediately stand up for me and I do the same for them. thing,” Lavbel said.
The key to her career has been getting opportunities. She became very intentional about connecting with people and organizations that could learn from her. Her main question was, “How do I get my voice heard by the people who hold the money?”
Sometimes she would ask to tag along with others pitching event ideas to the CEO.
“Every time I put myself in these positions, I continue to learn, learn and practice,” she said. “Then when I moved to another job, I said, ‘I know you want me to be the head of content programming here, but I also want to manage this P&L.’ Why? Because I think content is the P&L driver .
Each situation gave Lovebell additional skills to help her trajectory. “TED didn’t have this role. They created it for me because I brought a certain knowledge and expertise to it,” she explains.
She highlighted the difference between an event planner and an event strategist. “We don’t just order chicken. It’s important to understand the language of C-suite and let them understand the importance of what you’re doing,” she said.
Get inspired by TED
TED celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. TED Talks have been viewed more than 30 billion times and are a globally recognized brand. In addition, TED also hosts immersive face-to-face conferences. While much has changed, its overall mission has remained the same. “You come to TED to be motivated, inspired, and changed. To think differently.
The annual TED Conference in Vancouver features more than 80 TED talks over five days. TED talks vary in length. “It can be six minutes, 12 minutes, but not more than 18 minutes,” she said.
What many people like is that the speaker is approachable. They hang out and interact with the audience.
“What the TED conference does is we are able to create a community of curious people,” she said.
The experience includes more than just speaking. Lavbel often said that content is king and experience is king. Discovery courses focus on a myriad of topics. For example, a recent episode told the story of a tree doctor who takes people outside to listen to the trees talk. “You have to create an experience that people want to talk about,” she said.
Ravbel said many people are surprised that TED is a nonprofit organization. She also emphasized that anyone can apply to attend the TED conference. “They think it’s exclusive, but it’s not,” she said.
It’s all about community first. “I always tell my team to create connective tissue for each other, for all attendees, and for TED,” she said.
TED has a new initiative, the Consulting Program. “We’re sharing it with companies, organizations, nonprofits, event companies who want to learn how to make speakers great speakers like TED,” she said. “We do this to improve our industry and make sure we share what works for us.”
