TEDxUGA 2023 Curation Case Study

Assisted in the curation process of TEDxUGA 2023 presenters — Jeremiah de Sesto and Jake Goodman in ideas worth spreading

Project date: Spring 2023

Role: Rookie Presenter Advisor

Over the course of three months, I worked with Jeremiah & Jake to curate, edit, and practice their big ideas for the TEDxUGA stage. Jeremiah’s talk focused on embracing individual differences for achieving greatness and Jake’s talk focused on fixing the broken medical training system.

Prior to taking this class, I had no experience in curating presentations, never mind 18 minute long ones in front of a large audience. I’m not one for the spotlight and normally shy away from public speaking. So this class not only challenge me academically, but also pushed me beyond my personal comfort zone.

I began by reading the required text for the class Resonate: Present Visual Stories That Transform Audiences by Nancy Duarte. This book covers topics in how to create compelling presentations from the curation process, necessary elements, and how to connect to a broader audience. By reading this book and testing my knowledge of the content, I was able to fully understand what makes great presentations — great.

After finishing the text, we were assigned two presenters to work with to help perfect their talk and have them ready to take the stage at TEDxUGA. My main presenter was Jeremiah de Sesto, a UGA student talking about his struggles with differences in identity — as an immigrant from the Philippines and first generation college student — but how embracing these differences resulted in great achievement. As being a first generation student and minority myself, I empathized with his idea so I was able to add a lot of ideas and incorporate things we had both experienced.

We started by reviewing his big idea and where he was on his current draft. I assisted him in coming up with new ideas and organizing the content in a way that would sound more like a story than a report. I then designed his slide deck which would supplement his talk and create a more meaningful impact to the audience. Once his script and slides were finished, we had multiple practice sessions with small audiences to practice his memorization and receive feedback for improvement.

My secondary presenter was Jake Goodman, UGA alumni and psychiatry resident practicing out of Miami, Florida who talked about the broken medical training system and how it produces more mental health suffers, than mental health healers. His talk was an extremely hot topic and I can personally relate since I was considering medical school but decided against pursuing it after experiencing the stress and demand of the courses and professors.

When I joined Jake’s team, he was already in the process of memorizing so I was primarily there to give him feedback to improve his presentation. I would mention adding or taking away certain elements to the script or slides but overall Jake was near perfect and was ready to hit the stage.

On the day of TEDxUGA, I was tasked with running the concession stands but was able to watch Jeremiah’s and Jake’s talks live. Jake started off the whole show and killed it! All his hours of preparation and perfecting his talk really showed and the audience loved it. Jeremiah also did amazing and the audience really enjoyed hearing his personal story. Overall, all hours of meeting, editing, and practice presenting came to fruition, and it was all worth it!

Now having taken this class, I now know how to communicate ideas and presentations that resonates and influences all audience. And I understand the process of curation, editing, practicing , and producing a talk for the big stage. With all this knowledge, I can make compelling presentations to future employers — or who knows, maybe give my own TED talk one day!

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