I was even asked this question by a freshman at UCLA during my recent lecture there on The Green Generation, which showcased countless examples of young people around the world developing their own solutions to sustainability. Perhaps even youth doubt their own abilities to contribute meaningful change?

In my response, I tend to mention the creativity, passion and idealism of young people I’ve worked with. But another reason became more clear in recent days in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

I’m here with two students from Claremont McKenna College, Chris Temple and Zach Ingrasci, founders of the project, Living on One Dollar. They were nominated by Ashoka to speak at TEDxBuenosAires, the largest TEDx event in the world.

In front of 1,300 people, Chris and Zach — the youngest speakers — told of how they spent two months in 2010 living in Guatemala on a dollar a day and researched the financial lives of the extreme poor. They brought along two other friends, Sean Leonard and Ryan Christoffersen to document the experience and create weekly videos to distribute through their website and YouTube channel.

They hoped that their own experience of living among the extreme poor and under similar conditions could bring the issue of global poverty closer to their peers — other American youth.

The gamble paid off. Their first video caught the attention of YouTube and was featured on its homepage, resulting in more than 400,000 views in one day.

Since coming back, they’ve been focused on putting together their documentary (and going to school). TEDxBuenosAires marks the first time they are presenting their full story as well as their two month research to a public audience.

As an advisor to their project, I came along to help them prepare their talk. Our hope was that it can be told well (and we’d get a good recording of it) and that their story doesn’t get eclipsed by the Argentinean speakers.

Little did we expect the media frenzy that was to follow.

Argentina’s main national newspaper, Clarin, published a lengthy feature on their project the morning of the event. After the talk, they were immediately surrounded by reporters wanting to interview them for radio, TV, and webcasts. Chris and Zach fielded each interview, sometimes live and sometimes in Spanish, until they became mentally exhausted. That night, we channel surfed in order to catch their various TV appearances.

Watching everything unfold, my one thought was, “Why them?” Why did no other speakers get the kind of coverage they did?

Were they more famous or accomplished? Was it because they were American? Perhaps it’s because their talk was inspiring but some reporters interviewed them without having even seen their talk.

I think, in the end, it had to do with the simplicity and unexpectedness of their project. One brief summary – “American students living on one dollar a day in Guatemala” – and you are promised a good story.

We know the term for this in Hollywood: high-concept.

As much as we want to focus on character, dialogue and storyline, high-concept sells. It gets you funding as well as coverage. Like it or not, the masses are engaged with “What if…” scenarios.

I think the social sector can benefit from more high-concept projects and campaigns, instead of simply relying on the worthiness of causes. If Living on One Dollar can engage the masses to think about global poverty, imagine what can be done with climate change or any of the other Millennium Development Goals, a term few outside the social sector can get excited about. Imagine rescuing “sustainability” from the meaningless abstraction it has become.

But pulling off high-concept projects is not so easy. I believe you need three essential ingredients:

1. Experiential learning.
   Someone has to go experience something interesting. You can’t just bring back knowledge and insights. You have to take part in some drama.
2. Risk of failure.
   The experience can’t be predictable. It has to go beyond what is normally considered to be safe or sensible. Failure should be possible, even likely. As Chris said, “The plan wasn’t perfect, but we didn’t want perfection to stand in the way of action.”
3. Great media.
   You have to take us there, especially through video. You have to help us live through the experience with you (as much as you can).

For all these reasons, I believe youth are more likely than other groups to bring high-concept stories to our most critical challenges. Today’s youth are naturally high-concept. Look at what Invisible Children did for the civil war in Uganda. Look at what Darius Goes West did for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a condition few had heard of before.

Of course, the real promise of good stories is that they can deliver meanginful impact and change lives.

Chris and Zach want to use their film to support other young social entrepreneurs, tell their stories and spread their solutions to poverty. Perhaps you can help them find that perfect ending.

The theme is social entrepreneurship.  I might have a thing or two to say about that.

My plan is to answer once and for all that all important yet elusive question, “What is social entrepreneurship?”

Without giving away anything, I will simply say I will put forward a new framework to think about this hot topic.

Feel free to tune in to catch this historic speech. My talk will begin at 12 PM ET at TEDxPrincetonU.

It was truly inspirational from beginning to end and I met some amazing people, including Jourdan Urban, the young violin prodigy and philanthropist who now is a full-time student at Yale. I was able to work with Jourdan over the last two weeks to prepare his talk. Be sure to watch his talk and others.

Here’s a quick interview with Jourdan before the event.

Admit it. The day you learned you get to give a TED talk, you couldn’t help but burst with pride. Sure, it’s not the TED conference… just a local TEDx event. But who cares?! In many people’s eyes, you’ve arrived.

This is your 18 minutes of fame! Finally, you get to talk to people outside your profession. And it puts you in front of a high-powered, well-connected, and insatiably curious audience… the TED community, known as TEDsters.

These days, I find myself having to prep quite a few speakers for their TEDx talks. Maybe it’s because I used to be a journalist. Or maybe it’s because I’ve developed toolkits on communication and storytelling. Or maybe it’s because I’ve given a TEDx talk before at TEDxTaipei.

Whatever the reason, I’ve now worked with quite a few youth leaders on their speeches. Each time, it’s a real privilege to see their story take shape. As they all begin to discover, it’s not just a “talk.” It’s about who they are and what their Purpose might be.

So how do you prepare for these TEDx talks with such high expectations? Having worked on several of them from first draft to last, I would offer these general principles and guidelines:

1. Read the TED Commandments
These are the official guidelines from TED on how to prepare your talk. If you’ve been invited to speak, you probably have received a copy of this. Chew them over one at a time and let them sit with you until each one triggers new ideas.

• Thou Shalt Not Simply Trot Out thy Usual Shtick.
• Thou Shalt Dream a Great Dream, or Show Forth a Wondrous New Thing, Or Share Something Thou Hast Never Shared Before.
• Thou Shalt Reveal thy Curiosity and Thy Passion.
• Thou Shalt Tell a Story.
• Thou Shalt Freely Comment on the Utterances of Other Speakers for the Sake of Blessed Connection and Exquisite Controversy.
• Thou Shalt Not Flaunt thine Ego. Be Thou Vulnerable. Speak of thy Failure as well as thy Success.
• Thou Shalt Not Sell from the Stage: Neither thy Company, thy Goods, thy Writings, nor thy Desperate need for Funding; Lest Thou be Cast Aside into Outer Darkness.
• Thou Shalt Remember all the while: Laughter is Good.
• Thou Shalt Not Read thy Speech.
• Thou Shalt Not Steal the Time of Them that Follow Thee.

2. Watch some TED talks.
The more the merrier. You might do it anyway just because so many of them are so damn good. But you might want to save this step till after you have a first draft of your own speech. Allow yourself to formulate your talk before you’re influenced by others.

You’ll see from the talks just how diverse they are. There is no standard template, really. Nor should there be.

But do pay attention to each speaker’s delivery style. Some might more closely match your own. Look to them for inspiration on how to structure and deliver your talk.

3. What is the question?
Establish near the beginning of your talk what question fascinates you, and by extension, what question your talk will try to answer. What is the central question you’re trying to answer through your pursuits? Once this is established and your audience finds the question interesting, they will be hooked. They’ll come along for the ride.

An interesting question becomes an itch you want to scratch. Create that itch and people will want you to scratch it for them.

4. Give the backstory.
You were probably chosen to give a talk because you did something people noticed. The question is, “What don’t they see?”

Do they understand how it originated or unfolded? Do they know the challenges you had to go through? Describe how you got to where you are, if you think it can illuminate a subject.

Behind every interesting or inspiring thing or person, there’s a good backstory. You can’t go wrong sharing it.

5. Tell it chronologically.
Unless you’re very confident in your storytelling abilities, stick with telling your story chronologically. Don’t jump around or else it can get confusing.

Also, you want to build up to whatever it is you’ve accomplished. So don’t start off telling people about your crowning achievement or the impact you’ve had on others. Don’t give away the ending right at the beginning.

A story that follows a simple chronology is also easier to tell and easier to comprehend.

6. Strive for emotional impact.
People need to feel your story, not just understand it. Ask yourself, “Will people get this on an emotional level?” Where is the emotional peak?

Of course, it’s always hard to know how people will respond – on any level. But look to yourself. Why does what you do matter so much? Were there any moments in your career or life when you felt the importance of what it is you’re passionate about? Share those moments.

They could be times…

• When you or someone overcame challenges (against seemingly insurmountable odds)
• When you or someone expressed remarkable creativity (beyond your wildest imagination)
• Or when you or someone made an unlikely connection with someone else (despite your differences)

Make sure you’ve achieved emotional impact no later than 2/3rds of the way through your talk.

7. Share what you’ve learned. (Don’t preach.)
Let us in on your own intellectual journey. Take us back to when you knew less than you know now about whatever subject you’re talking about. What was your understanding then? What important insight(s) do you have now? Share with us the events or discoveries that caused the change.

By acknowledging that you have learned from your experience, you avoid coming across as a know-it-all. You will appear humble and even vulnerable. The audience will be able to relate to that.

8. Flip the paradigm.
Try to have a take away message that invites people to think differently about something. First, you have to identify what ideas or beliefs you have that are unusual or more refined than what is commonly held. Often, when you become an expert in something, you will develop ideas that most non-experts don’t have. Are some of them worth exploring? Talk about how you formed one of those ideas.

By the time you get to your concluding remarks, you should make it very clear what your alternative viewpoint is. State it explicitly so that people register your “sticky” message.

9. Present photos and video, not text.
In an 18 minute talk, you are saying a lot. You shouldn’t put more words on screen for people to digest. Instead, show them photos and videos that help transport them to places and moments mentioned in your talk.

Only create slides with text if people often compliment you on how beautiful your PowerPoint or Keynote presentations look. Otherwise, don’t bother.

10. Write two different talks.
If you’re really struggling with what to talk about, come up with two completely different talks. Test them on friends or just sit with them for a few days. You’ll know which one feels right.

This is how designers work. They come up with two or three different designs and then get feedback before deciding which one works best.

Abandon the idea you have only one good TED talk in you.

11. Memorize the beginning and the end.
If you feel you have to memorize your entire speech, go ahead. But the most important parts to perfect are the beginning and the end. Start well and end well.

What about the middle – the bulk of the speech? Ideally, your talk is mainly a story (or a series of events told chronologically). It should have a natural or logical flow. Let that help you remember what to say. You’ll find that you don’t need to remember a story word for word. Your audience will allow for a few fumbles, or a more causal or chatty delivery.

But try not to fumble at the beginning (when you’re trying to hook them) or at the end (when everything has to be tied up).

If you have your own tips, I invite you to post them below. And if this guide helped you prepare your TEDx talk, share a link to your talk as well.

Good luck!

Charles Tsai is a journalist, writer, speaker and consultant for social entrepreneurs. If you like more posts like this, subscribe to his blog.

I was honored to have given a presentation at the inaugural TEDxTaipei on October 17, 2009.

I spoke about Inconvenient Youth, a term I used to describe young changemakers. When the video is posted, I will provide a link here.  Stay tuned!

I’ve been a huge fan of the TED phenomenon for a few years now so it’s an honor to be invited to speak at a TED event.

This year, the Taipei event has three sub-themes: Taiwan Stories, Design Power and See Beyond Possibilities. I’ll be addressing the third theme.

What will I be speaking about? Well, you’ll have to stay tuned.