Dominique Hunt - The Journey

The process of doing a TEDx talk is a journey that is worth all the hard work. I had an idea that my surrounding community wanted to know more about and wanted to know what I was doing to tell even more people about my idea. The excitement around my idea made me apply to be a speaker. Ideas are worth spreading. Having an idea worth spreading and being a speaker, you know that it is your own idea and people are listening to, this is very empowering. It can be challenging at times to be easily worried about the logistics of public speaking. What makes me feel comfortable with the journey to the TEDx stage is that I am giving a talk about on a topic I know most about.

Having an idea that surrounds Technology, Entertainment, and Design I had high expectations for the journey to the stage and so far, I feel that the process has been unexpectedly simple. In my field of Industrial Design, some say the best designs are the simplest. This has been true with preparing for the stage. A TEDx talk is a talk, a very simple thing we do every day. The simplicity of doing a TEDx talk comes out when I realized that I’m sharing my idea. Something that I’ve been doing before and after I get to the TEDx stage. My excitement to share something I care about, that I believe will help communities and shape future methodologies has been the best part of preparing for the talk.
The opportunity that the TEDx stage gives speakers is the best part of preparing for the talk. You want to do a good job because the stage is somewhere so many different people have come to give a talk that empowers an audience. The ideas that have been shared are like lessons that have been learned by different people and experiences. This year’s TEDx talk comes at a time far after the start of a pandemic and I feel incredibly lucky to be able to share my journey and how we have examined our lives and lessons we have learned during the huge cultural shift brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.