Updated Oct 14th, 2020

Logistics & Agreements

Our first salon event was on Friday, July 17th 2020

Salons are 1-evening events, but rehearsal, prep, and debrief requires an unknown level of effort as these type of events are still in development. If you need support you feel like you're not getting please reach out and help us design a way to better support you!

Feel free to read over our Flagship Event Speaker Info document to get a sense for how this all plays out for our big event. We're still experimenting with formats for Salons and online events, so please know that your participation and input can be influential and beneficial to the way our events finally come together. We're very open to changes & suggestions for the structure of this event.

The main difference between Salons & Flagship events is that our timeline is in weeks rather than months. This will be a collaborative and co-creative event for all of us, and what we bring to it informs how well it turns out.

Salon Event Participation Overview

Being a TEDxCOS speaker comes in 4 fairly simple phases, and each comes with its associated form to keep things simple and organized for you and our volunteer team:

Selection

1. You'll either audition or you'll be asked to speak on stage.
2. If we agree you're a good fit, you'll be asked 5+ weeks out from the main event submit your first full length draft video (please aim for 5-8 and go up to ~10 minutes for our event, but here are the official TEDx rules) as well as details about your life, your talk, and have a conversation with our curators and coaches around your talk on stage.
3. At this point we'll ask you to fill out the TEDxColoradoSprings form at TEDxCOS.org/Form - bookmark it because you will revisit this form from time to time at various stages of your involvement with us.

Coaching

1. At the beginning of coaching you'll receive a speaker agreement and a list of dates for coaching opportunities and you'll have 1-3 weeks to prepare your TEDx talk. It will be less formal and less rehearsed than our flagship events. Try to be conversational and engaging with our much more intimate audience size.
2. At this point you can access our coaching online course. This is optional, but we suggest that it can compliment your talk practice experience quite well. With or without the course, your period of talk development will likely look like this:
   • Week 1 - Making Your Idea Worth Spreading - What experiences have informed the talk of your life?
   • Week 2 - Refining Your Idea Worth Spreading - How can you structure & pace it to really move & influence?
   • Week 3 - Delivering You Idea Worth Spreading - How can you improve your delivery style to serve your message?
   • Week 4 - Sharing Your Idea Worth Spreading - How to embrace the talk when you lock it, and how to best invite friends and family to share the experience with you, and boost the talk when it goes live online!
3. In the last week of coaching, you'll submit a final draft, final transcript and any other documents as well as confirming your attendance for our live event and that you have tickets purchased and you're ready to show up about 2 weeks out from the event. At 1-2 weeks out your talk will be locked.
4. The entire process from selection to TEDx talk will be 3-5 weeks depending on when we select you and for which event.

Event

1. You'll go on stage, we'll have a lovely, busy, and restful week-of-the-event per the agenda below, and you'll get your 3rd run-through the TEDxCOS Form that asks for final details you've decided on about your talk title, bio, description, tags, etc.