Nancy Frates, a mother and ALS advocate, gave an inspirational TED talk in Boston in October 2014. She opened her talk with a simple question, which led into a passionate story about her son’s sudden struggle with ALS. She started off by describing the members of her family to the audience, which made me feel a personal connection with her family, most prominently, with her son. Then, she made the story relatable to every person in the audience by focusing her story on her family’s strength to overcome and achieve an obstacle rather than on the diagnosis of her son’s disease.
She purposely changed the tone of her voice to differentiate each person in the story, which helped me follow the different narratives better. Nancy also made an effort to walk around the room to ensure everyone in the room felt a part of the conversation. Her eyes were constantly moving around the room, never settling in any specific spot. She did not use any visuals in her presentation; however, I think she may have done this intentionally so that she could maintain the focus in the room. Although she did not bring in any props, Nancy did a great job of utilizing her hands to demonstrate the different aspects in the story. She …show more content…
Jessa begins her talk by saying, “Let’s start with day and night.” In my opinion, there are many other ways she could have started her talk that would have engaged the audience more. Jessa could have started with a personal story or she could have physically turned out the lights for a moment to give the audience a better sense of the topic of the presentation. By beginning the talk in such a way, she most likely lost a couple of people’s interests as opposed to sparking interest in the topic to follow. Jessa made no attempt to relate her topic with the audience, which could have been done easily because her topic addressed sleep, something that everybody does