A few days before Syracuse University’s first-ever TEDx talk, student organizers kicked into high gear to make the debut successful.

Organizers walked around the small stage of Huntington Beard Crouse Hall’s Gifford Auditorium — where one rehearsal took place — eating pizza and trying to mask their anticipatory stress for the night’s big speakers.

The 15 hand-selected speakers rotated practicing their speeches into iPads and cameras, facing themselves, getting ready to address spectators in Newhouse’s Joyce Hergenhan Auditorium on Wednesday.

TEDx student coordinators enlisted the specialty of New York-based Company Dale Carnegie Training to prep the speakers for the sold-out event, which starts at 5 p.m. on Wednesday. Tickets sold out to the SU community in 30 minutes.

The company specializes in helping those in business opportunities sharpen their skills and improve their performance in order to yield positive results, according to the company website. The speakers, which include Syracuse students, faculty and community members, were given tools that will affect the delivery of their messages.

Diana Wolgemuth, director of professional development for Dale Carnegie Training, said one of the company’s main objectives is to assist people in making appropriate first impressions in order to become effective communicators and leaders.

“Our goal is to teach them how to implement a variety of skills in order to connect in a compelling way so that their listeners are able to take away knowledge that motivates them,” Wolgemuth said.

Leslie English, the president and owner of Dale Carnegie Training, and Wolgemuth worked with the array of TEDx speakers to help them appear at ease to provide a genuine experience to the 300 attendees and to those streaming the event online.

Speakers like Yvonne Conte took the opportunity to speak at TEDx in stride.

“When I saw the opportunity, I told myself, ‘You know what, I’m gonna do this,’” the Fayetteville native said. “I’m a firm believer in walking through a door when it opens. This one was, so I am going to take advantage of it.”

Conte added that the work of Dale Carnegie Training is helpful in a certain window of time.

“The hardest thing is getting the point across in 18 minutes or less. It teaches you how to be direct,” she said.

SU’s TEDx coordinator, Marc Abelard, said that while the plan to bring the talk to campus was extremely unorthodox, it seems to be paying off.

Because those involved with bringing the TEDx talk to campus had never done such a thing, there was no assurance that they were doing things the right way.

“This all started with student involvement,” Abelard said. “It was hard to get the ball rolling because there was no blueprint, but we learned as we went along.”

Abelard, a senior information management and technology major, added that creating the speaker application was the hardest part of the planning process. But once the process was completed, selecting from the 38 applicants made things easier going forward.

The criteria for the speaker selection included finding individuals whose personalities were relevant to the SU community and had unique ideas that could bring the theme of “Emerging Technologies and Human Relationships” to light.

Nathaniel Rose, a senior computer engineer student and the lead organization director for the event, said his WRT 205 course inspired the subject matter for the TEDx talk.

“The class opened my eyes to the changing way of thinking about technology and how we interacted with it. In a university setting, it challenges the way we think,” he said.

Since a TEDx talk has never been held on the SU campus, Rose found the opportunity particularly fitting to bring the independent event to the Syracuse community.

“I knew TEDx talks were very different from a typical lecture or presentation that some of these speakers have done before,” Rose said. “Diana shared this understanding and we created a workshop to assure our speakers were prepared for the TED style presentation.”

Even with the stress of preparations, television, radio and film major Kelvin Sherman, co-organization director and communications coordinator of the talks, feels confident.

“Emotions are vacillating,” Sherman said. “We are happy that it’s finally here. A night before any big event is always stressful. People are excited and I think that is what is driving us. Those who are coming to the event are excited and that makes us proud.”

Published on April 9, 2014 at 1:00 am

Contact Lauren: ljporter@syr.edu