TED speaker auditions to come to Sydney – but no product-hawkers, jargon-junkies, dullards, motivator wannabes or spouters of new-age fluff

Now how will I sell all this snake oil?

TED asking people to ‘audition’ to appear. Are they serious?
So, now the people appearing at TED aren’t people who’ve been invited because of what they have to say, but people who feel what they have to say is important?
This is kind of what you’d get if a Head of State was ever elected in Australia. Great Australians like Sir William Dean, Sir Zelman Cowan, the current GG Quentin Bryce would never be appointed as GG’s because they’d never stand for election. They’re not politicians and don’t want to be. If TED’s ‘cattle call’ was applied to the GG’s post we’d end up with Dick Smith, or Daryl Somers as our Head of State. I fear that’s the road TED is now travelling. Can you imagine what sort of kid would audition for _ ‘The Prodigy – young talent ready to break out’? I think I’d rather watch The Kardashians and save myself some money.

That’s gonna be a waste of time.
Inspirational speakers are thin on the ground in Oz. Nano-thin.
Not for lack of inspirational achievements, but because the standard of public speaking an presentation in Australia is rank.
Possibly a cultural thing in that oratory is seen as ‘getting above yourself’.

There hasn’t been one politician in 110 years since Federation that you’d waste your time listening to – not one, no exceptions. No, don’t even try. They’re all forgotten, having drowned in the drivel of their stream-of-consciousness speeches.

Not one business or social leader who wasn’t an embarrassment when they open their mouths. Just a mish-mash of facts, agendas, Powerpoint, blah.

There’s no love of writing a speech, of taking emotional risks, of showing passion in Australian public speakers.
Which is why there are no Australian JFKs, no MLKs, no Obamas – just dreary drones with Powerpoint and no story or syntax.

We have the writers, we have the audiences yearning, but we just haven’t got the talented speakers with guts and vision. Sad but true.