Ben Saunders

The TED Commandments

I met Chris Anderson, the Chairman and Host of TED at Pop!Tech last year, and I spent much of the flight home wondering how on earth I could wangle a speaking slot at what sounded an utterly incredible event. A few days later, as I was in the process of drafting what must have been my tenth email to Chris, he called me out of the blue. 'How do you fancy speaking at TED?' he asked. 'Erm… wow… yeah, I'd love to'.

And you know it's not going to be a normal speaking gig when instead of the usual emailed 'Theme: North Pole/Inspirational. Duration: 45 minutes. Dress: smart/casual', a half-kilo chunk of stone plops through your letterbox via Fedex with ten guidelines burnt onto it. My favourite: 'I) Thou shalt not simply trot out thy usual shtick'. Cool.

— Filed under Speaking