The TED conference, which invites leading thinkers to deliver mind-blowing lectures about technology and society, has inspired an academic copycat. The University of British of Columbia has announced a conference this fall that will mimic the TED conference’s format — short, entertaining talks — except that the speakers will be college students, rather than luminaries.
The university’s event is called the Terry Talks conference, and organizers are now looking for speakers, who must send in video clips of themselves along with their proposed topics. To make sure that the applicants create “kick-ass talks,” as organizers put it in the event’s announcement, organizers created a short video with tips on “things to avoid when speaking publicly.” Among the things to stay away from: “being dull,” “aggressive sweating,” and “laughing manically.” Organizers plan to put video of the resulting lectures online free, just as the TED conference does. —Jeffrey R. Young
