The TED talk that I watched is titled “The art of misdirection.” It features Apollo Robbin, ostensibly the greatest pickpocket in the world, as he shows the crowd how easy it is to misdirect people by controlling their attention. At first he explains this concept academically by likening your sense of attention to a security guard within you brain named Frank. Robbin discusses how Frank’s resources are finite and how he can be distracted. However, Robbin goes on to choose a member of the crowd as an example of the concepts that he has just explained. Over the next few minutes Robbin consistently tricks this hapless old man in a good-natured sort of way to demonstrate how easy it is. By the end, he has taken the man’s watch, money, and miscellaneous items (including a shrimp that was in his pocket) without this guy even realizing it. Finally, to close the talk Robbin asks the crowd what he is wearing, at which time the entire crowd realises that he has changed his outfit during the talk without them even noticing.

I have seen multiple TED talks before, but this one is easily the one that engages with the audience the most. Now obviously, the subject matter of this specific talk is particularly well-suited to include the audience. But the fact is that having the audience participate in your talk – even in a much more limited capacity than what is shown in this video – is a very effective way of making your talk more interesting. This may be especially true if your subject matter is particularly dense because it ensures that the audience’s interest is kept high.

Overall this talk did a great job of keeping the audience involved and interested. The speaker picked a tone that worked for his subject – lighthearted and playful – and stuck with it throughout the talk, which ended up being very successful.