After years of reading about, listening to and watching various TED Talks, I attended my first one at last week’s TEDx Detroit. So, what’s the deliverable from plunking down $100 for a big bottle of Absopure and a Walsh swag bag? Inspiration.

Sure, lots of people poke holes in TED Talks for some pretty good reasons but the truth is you actually do learn about cool ideas and new insights on how to actually help anyone you’re speaking with fully understand what you do. For those of us presenting and packaging our businesses for consideration, delivery of visual learning and better storytelling is always a hallmark of TEDx events. Speakers eschew text-heavy PowerPoint slides full of crowded charts and illegible content. They engage the power of social learning. They understand that images can communicate more than mere words. TEDx audiences come away with an impression, a deepened knowledge and understanding of a speaker’s topic and point. Whether it’s inventing new wheelchairs or becoming inner mentors, we were able to grasp sometimes very abstract ideas simply because they were embedded in the rich context of the speakers’ stories and experiences. TEDx speakers encouraged us by building their topics around things that were already familiar to us. They related their topics to our lives as human beings who actually are capable of being inspired by things people do, make and accomplish.

Inspiration comes in many forms and in this case it was a grasp of how practitioners can and should become teachers of their craft. Now I just need to turn that inspiration into action in how I tell stories.

Rich Williams, SVP/Strategic Business Development