Hello to the amazing TEDxOrlando community!
This week, we reached a critical milestone in our curation process, and I thought supporters, applicants, and attendees would be interested in learning more about how we’re progressing with speaker selection and the approach we’re taking.
Respect, democracy, and transparency are the key values for me in this process.
Respect for those with the courage to put themselves forward for our stage, democracy in how we make decisions as a curation team, and transparency in how we explain our decision-making process.
My husband, Liam Rogers, and I bring a decade of experience organizing TEDx events in Kingston upon Thames, south west London. TEDxOrlando builds on the approach we developed there.
We have always had an open call for speakers. Even if one or two members of our lineup are handpicked, I believe in opening the opportunity to all those doers, thinkers, and innovators in the local community. In Orlando, that led to over 630 applications!
Every one of those applications deserves to be treated with respect, and I gave our curation team plenty of time to review them all.
Our team of volunteer curators is, by design, a diverse one, bringing different backgrounds, expertise, and perspectives to bear in our work. It includes Dr. Keita Joy, a coach, TEDx speaker, and entrepreneur; Lechon Kirb, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and brand specialist; Afreen Huq, a public speaker, entrepreneur and CEO of HERD Ventures; Erich Miner, an airline pilot; Michael Wong, a consultant; Marah Lago, an entrepreneur and founder of the Military Creator Conference; and Carol Cox and Alan Cohen, both experienced speaker coaches, with Alan also being a TEDx speaker. Liam and I run Story Circle, and I also bring my own experience as a TEDx speaker.
We recently met as a team to consider which applications to move forward to interviews, in a lengthy and detailed discussion. There were many strong contenders, but our task is to recruit just 12 speakers for the Flagship event and build a pool of speakers for 2026/27 Salon events.
This meant making some tough decisions.
It’s difficult to sum up exactly what we’re looking for in a potential TEDxOrlando speaker – so often, you simply know it when you see it – but some of the key factors are:
Originality: Is this a new idea, or a new take on an existing idea?
Credibility: Is this applicant the right person to speak on this topic?
Understanding: Does the applicant understand how a TEDx talk is different from other types of talks? Are they willing and able to follow the TEDx content guidelines?
Coachability: Regardless of speaking experience, is this applicant excited about participating in our coaching process?
Charisma: Can the applicant communicate clearly, engagingly, and with presence?
Location: While we will consider applicants from outside Central Florida when they bring a unique perspective, our mission is to foreground voices from within our community.
After careful reflection, we identified 53 of the 630+ applicants to move forward to interviews.
Over the coming weeks, we’ll be conducting interviews with these applicants – an intensive and time-consuming, but exciting, process.
To everyone who applied: thank you. Submitting an idea takes courage, and the fact that we can only move forward with a small number of applicants reflects the constraints of our stage, not the quality of thinking in our community.
Our goal is to curate a lineup of speakers and ideas that stands alongside the very best TEDx events, and to create an experience that inspires our audience to think differently, take action, and create positive change in their own lives and in our community.
We’re excited for what comes next!
Director of Speaker Curation
TEDxOrlando