• TEDx talks are not motivational speeches.

• TEDx talks are not just storytelling about a personal journey. If you are including your personal story, it must lead to a new surprising idea or concept to qualify for consideration.

• TEDx talks are not a promotional opportunity to showcase your company or brand.

• TEDx talks are not religious or political.

A TEDx Talk is a showcase for speakers presenting great, well-formed ideas in under 18 minutes.

Why under 18 minutes?

What is a great, well-formed idea?

• Something that’s new and surprising; an idea or invention that your audience has never heard about.
• A great basic idea (that your audience has maybe already heard) with a compelling new argument behind it that challenges beliefs and perspectives.

The big idea

The tech demo

The performance

The artist’s statement

The “dazzle with wonder”

The small idea

The “issue” talk

TED offers speakers a platform to provide information directly to millions of people around the world. It’s a responsibility we take seriously. First and foremost, that information has to be accurate at the time of publication.

If a talk does not follow the Content Guidelines or Copyright Guidelines and the organizer chooses to upload the talk, TEDx reserves the right to add an editorial flag describing how the talk falls outside the guidelines or to decline its publication.

All TED and TEDx talk must follow:

1. No commercial agenda
2. No political agendas or inflammatory rhetoric
3. No religious agenda
4. No bad science

No Bad Science 

• TED and TEDx are platforms for showcasing and explaining genuine advances in science that are backed by research.
• Scientific claims by speakers should be based on data that has survived scrutiny by experts in the field. Speakers should be transparent about the basis for any factual claims, and the scientific evidence for them.
• The consequences of pseudoscience can be especially severe, and speakers should not misuse scientific language to make unsubstantiated claims.

• Be testable experimentally
• Have been published in a peer-reviewed, respected journal
• Be based on theories that are also considered credible by experts in the field
• Be backed up by experiments that have generated enough data to convince other experts of its legitimacy
• Have proponents who are secure enough to acknowledge areas of doubt and need for further investigation
• Not fly in the face of the broad existing body of scientific knowledge
• Be presented by a speaker who has the right scientific qualifications
• Show clear respect for the scientific method and scientific thinking generally.

• Be so obscure or mysterious as to be untestable.
• Be considered ridiculous by credible scientists in the field.
• Be based on experiments that can not be reproduced by others.
• Be based on data that do not convincingly corroborate the experimenter’s theoretical claims.
• Come from overconfident advocates.
• Use over-simplified interpretations of legitimate studies.
• Include imprecise vocabulary. (Phrases like “quantum consciousness,” personal “energy fields,”
  “crystal healing”, and the like, should be considered major red flags.)
• Abandon evidence-based thinking or be dismissive of the scientific method.

Read more details here.

What is fact-checking, and why does it matter?
Fact-checking means going through a script’s empirical claims — basically, anything that can be verified in the real world — and making sure that they are as accurate as possible. There are real consequences to the talks you produce, since people will often change their behavior based on a talk that they watch. So, you want to be sure you are not accidentally sharing misinformation or disinformation on your TEDx stage. It protects the reputations of you, the speaker, the event, and TED at-large.

See more details here.

Speaker fees and ineligible speakers:

• TEDx events may neither pay nor charge speakers.
• Sponsors of the TEDx event cannot be speakers and can never present from the stage.
• Organizers cannot be speakers at TEDx events to which they contribute.

No commercial agenda:

• Speakers cannot promote their own products, books, or businesses, or those of a company which employs them. Talks can only feature technology, product demos, or books that inform an idea presented in a talk.

Copyright:

• Every talk’s content must be in compliance with copyright law.
• Speakers must inform you beforehand of any third-party material that will be used in their presentations and seek written permissions to copyrighted materials when applicable.
• TED cannot assist with this process nor act as a consultant on individual cases. Read these Copyright Guidelines to ensure as speaker you clear everything with permission before we record your TEDx talk.

Talks are thoughtful, not divisive:

• No talks with an inflammatory political or religious agenda, nor polarizing “us vs them” language.
• TED and TEDx seek to build consensus and provide outside-the-box thinking, not to revisit familiar, unresolvable disputes on these topics.

Speaker content guidelines:

• All talks should comply with TEDx Content Guidelines and Copyright Guidelines.
• If a talk does not follow the Content Guidelines or Copyright Guidelines, organizers have the discretion to withhold the talk. TEDx organizers must inform both TED staff and the speaker(s) that they have made this decision, along with their reasoning.
• If a talk does not follow the Content Guidelines or Copyright Guidelines and the organizer chooses to upload the talk, TED reserves the right to add an editorial flag describing how the talk falls outside the guidelines or to decline its publication.

TEDxLogan Circle aims to bridge the gap in audiences and voices who haven’t had a chance to amplify their innovative ideas. We look for passionate, dedicated, engaging, and open-minded speakers who have an inspiring idea to share with the world but also willing to work with us to hone their storytelling craft for the stage. In our hope to give all innovators a chance, we commit to doing open call for speaker application process and welcome all speakers who align with each year’s theme to apply. 

Before submitting your application:

• Please be familiar and be prepared to honor all TED, TEDx, and TEDxLogan Circle rules.
• Please take the time to learn about our event theme and how your idea connects to our theme.
• We also look for speakers connected to Washington DC and Logan Circle. Please be ready to share your connection or interest.
• Be able to answer “why me” and “why now”.  You may have an interesting idea but how is this a good TEDx Talk?

We understand how much work and care goes into the talk pitch and preparation and appreciate you taking the time to sharing your idea with us. Please understand that we’ll do our best to get back to you but given the large amount of application we receive each year we may not be able to get to everyone. In 2024, we received over 178 application from 7 countries in which we selected 12 speakers. We anticipate the competition to be similar each year and look forward to hearing many more ideas.

Lastly, a reminder that all TEDx organization and operation is led by TEDx team that is built by an all-volunteer led team. Please understand we are also doing this out of the love of our community. We wish you all the best and continued success!