Christine Porath of Georgetown University speaks at a recent TEDx talk organized by the University of Nevado Reno. (Photo courtesy of Tim Dunn)
TED TALKS—CONFERENCES and online videos focused on technology,
entertainment, and design—bill themselves as promoting “ideas worth
spreading.” Over the years, they have provided millions of people
with insights into creativity, motivation, statistics, and other topics.
Universities and other nonprofits have adopted the same model with
sponsored TEDx programs that allow organizations to share knowledge
and ideas from their own fields.
For business schools, TEDx programs offer a chance to create
impact on their communities, improve engagement with stakeholders,
and promote innovation in their regions—in other words, to support
the three pillars of AACSB International’s mission.
Impact, engagement, and innovation were among the goals we
had in mind at the University of Nevada Reno (UNR) when we organized
our inaugural TEDx event in January 2013. As we held that first
TEDxUniversityofNevada presentation in a small campus theater for
an audience of 100, we didn’t know how much our audiences would
grow, both in-person and online. By comparison, our January 2018
event was presented at the Reno-Sparks Convention Center for an audience
of 1,300, and the 120 videos we’ve
posted from our six events have been
viewed online 42 million times. Some
of the talks have been translated into 32
languages. This exposure has given our
College of Business truly global reach.
We’ve grown in scale and sophistication
as well. When our dean, Greg
Mosier, helped us launch that first talk,
we funded the whole event with ticket
sales and a US$15,000 donation from
our EMBA program. Our organizing
team consisted mainly of students and
staff from the College of Business. For
our 2018 event, 30 community sponsors
joined the College of Business to help us
cover a budget of more than $100,000,
and about half of the 50-plus people on our organizing team came from the
Reno-Sparks business community.
Organizing a TEDx talk can be both
challenging and rewarding for a university.
In our experience, schools can pave
the way to a successful and sustainable
series by following these three steps:
Realize that TEDx is a licensed
event. It’s a prerequisite for administrators
at your school to thoroughly
read the licensing rules provided at
TED.com, which explain everything
you need to know.
Start small, but dream big. For all
organizers who obtain a license, the
size of the first event is limited to 100
attendees. We knew we would have to
pursue a growth strategy for TEDxUniversityofNevada
if we wanted to create
a sustainable event. We also knew there
was probably a limited supply of great
local people with “ideas worth spreading.”
Therefore, we strove to create a
destination event that would bring in
speakers from all over the world. So far,
we have hosted speakers from the U.S.,
Canada, Mexico, and the U.K. While
our talks have addressed a broad
spectrum of ideas, every year we try
to include a few presenters who focus
on business-related issues.
Secure administrative support.
Organizing a TEDx event is a lot of
work and leadership buy-in is important.
At our school, the dean gives the
organizers credit for service productivity
and even intellectual contributions,
and the events wouldn’t be possible
without his backing.
After six years of experience, we’ve
compiled this advice for professors interested
in participating in TEDx events:
Understand the format. A TED talk
is very different from a standard academic
presentation. First, it’s a maximum of
18 minutes. Second, it will be delivered
to an audience that is largely unfamiliar
with the professor’s area of research
expertise or even the extant literature.
For TEDxUniversityofNevada
events, we seek out speakers who can
clearly articulate compelling ideas,
rather than “topics” for talks. These
ideas should be as relevant to people
living in Rotterdam or Seoul as they are
to people in Reno. We tell our speakers
to think first about the global issue, next
about an innovative solution, and only
then about a local example.
We also advise our speakers that they
shouldn’t approach the event as if they
are giving a talk in front of a live audience
and it happens to be recorded; they
should approach it as if they are producing
a video of a talk that is being broadcast
to the world but also just happens to
be in front of a live audience.
Look beyond your own campus. If
your university is not organizing TEDx
talks, see if other schools are. First check
to see if your city, state, or region has
hosted such events; if so, watch online
videos to check out the quality. If you
like what you see, contact the organizers
and present your ideas. Many TEDx
organizing teams are eager to work
with accomplished academics who can
translate complex research into easily
understood ideas.
Make sure you’re prepared! Most
of the speaking we do as academics is
neither scripted nor rehearsed, but a
good TEDx talk is both. Consider hiring
a coach to help you get ready. At the very
least, ask for advice from other faculty
who have done successful TEDx talks.
For example, in 2017 Christine Porath
of Georgetown University delivered
an exceptional talk for us based on her
civility research. She not only reached
out to other speakers for advice, but also
hired a professional company to help
her develop her slides. That talk has now
been published on TED.com and has
been viewed more than 1 million times.
Is organizing a TEDx event worth all
the time, effort, and preparation? For
both universities and individual professors,
we think the answer is yes. UNR is
not the only school that has reached a
massive audience with its events. Hult
International Business School hosted
TEDxHultAshridge in September 2017.
One of the talks from that event, “Why
Driverless Cars Need Philosophers” by
professor of entrepreneurship Alessandro
Lanteri, has garnered more than
170,000 views.
In 2014, Amy Edmondson of Harvard’s
Graduate School of Education
gave a TEDxHGSE talk on psychological
safety in the workplace, and it has now
been viewed more than 262,000 times.
Speaking at the independently organized
TEDxEast in 2013, Wharton’s Adam
Grant discussed powerless communication—
and racked up more than 140,000
views. After Grant and Edmondson were
invited to speak at the main TED events,
their subsequent talks attracted nearly
13 million and more than 1 million
views, respectively.
For UNR, the TEDx events bring
together students, faculty, staff, and
community members to consider ideas
that originated in our university, in our
community, and all over the world. We
give audience members an experience
they cannot get anywhere else. And as
millions of people view our videos, we
gain evidence that the rest of the world
values the work we do locally.
So, here’s an idea worth spreading:
More AACSB-accredited institutions
and faculty should be leveraging the
TEDx global communication forum
to help fulfill their missions and share
their knowledge with audiences around
the world.
Bret Simmons is an associate professor
of management and Jeffrey A. Wong is a
professor and chair of accounting at the
College of Business at the University of
Nevada Reno.
View a TEDxUniversityofNevada video.