TED 2010 speakers announced

Speakers for the widely watched TED (short for technology, education, design) 2010 conference have been announced. TED brings inspiring, creative speakers with "ideas worth spreading" from around the world to the conference, sold out months in advance--then posts video, transcripts and translations of their talks year-round on its excellent website, TED.com.

I'm disappointed that women make up just under 25 percent of the 40 speakers named so far, although the women presenting include a great array of talent. They are:

• Marian Bantjes, designer, illustrator and typographer
• Sheryl Crow, singer, songwriter and activist
• Esther Duflo, development economist
• Eve Ensler, playwright and activist
• Cheryl Hayashi, a biologist who studies spider silk
• Jane McGonigal, game designer
• Natalie Merchant, singer and songwriter
• Elizabeth Pisani, epidemiologist
• Sarah Silverman, comedian

TED.com offers any speaker a wonderful learning opportunity. All the talks are limited in length and require speakers to speak without notes, but many use creative props or visuals, as well as their own performance skills. I'll be looking forward to hearing this new crop of TED talks coming soon.

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Final exam: Speak at the mall

You might expect a public speaking class to include a live presentation in front of your classmates. But at Adirondack Community College in New York state, public speaking students in Sean Mathews' class had to give their final speech at the mall--Aviation Mall in Queensberry, to be exact. According to this article, the 20 students took turns giving their presentations outside the mall's J.C. Penney store, and the location was part of the instructor's plan. From the article:

Mathews, an adjunct English professor, said he wanted students to speak in a public place. This was the first time he had used a mall.

"It's really the perfect challenge for this course," he said. "I want them to experience giving a speech out in public."

Students had to speak loudly enough to be heard over the ambient music and noise inside the mall. And they had to project to a larger audience.

Good reminders for beginner speakers: Make sure you work in a public presentation before you consider yourself "ready." Congratulations to this class for taking the plunge in a public place.