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

In a twist to annual ideas festival TED, live auditions will be held to select speakers for the main event in Long Beach, California in 2013.

The Sydney leg of auditions will be held on Sunday 27 May – the day after the return of TEDxSydney.

Historically, speakers are invited to attend.

The live audition process will be hosted by TED curator Chris Anderson, TED content director Kelly Stoetzel and TEDxSydney licensee Remo Giuffré.

The theme for the event – which stands for technology, entertainment and design – is “the young, the wise, the undiscovered.”

According to a TEDxSydney press release, the event organisers are looking for:

  • The inventor – sharing an innovation with world-changing potential
  • The teacher – sharing valuable knowledge in a memorable way, to teenagers or adults
  • The progidy – young talent ready to break out
  • The artist – who can showcase their work in a compelling, new way
  • The performer – music, dance, comedy, drama… or something entirely different
  • The sage – wisdom the world needs from those who have learned it the hard way
  • The enthusiast – with an infectious passion about a topic they can share
  • The change agent – helping shape the world’s future with work that matters
  • The story teller – vivid, original, meaningful … with a talent for connection
  • The spark – with a powerful idea worth spreading

According to TED: “product-hawkers, jargon-junkies, dullards, wafflers, motivator wannabes, self-promoters, spouters of new-age fluff should not apply.”

Applications for a TEDxSydney ticket will open in March, and submitted via the TEDxSydney.com website.

Last year’s event saw a geneticist, a corporate anthropologist, a bird behaviourist, a poet, an inventor and a historian take to the stage in Sydney.

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