What (and who) makes a great TED talk?

With TED2018 fast approaching, we talk to TED’s Head of Curation Helen Walters (above) about what makes a great TED Talk, how they find their speakers and why they introduced that famous 18-minute rule

Can you explain what your role is at TED?
As of this year I am the Head of Curation at TED, which basically means I get to work with an insanely talented group of curators to think about and invite speakers for the various TED conferences we hold through the year. That includes the big, multi-day conferences such as TED in Vancouver or TEDWomen, along with the salons and one-off events we hold in our office theatre in New York. I also work closely with the team that packages those talks for the digital audience and with our other creative teams (social media, a team devoted to developing new digital formats for TED, etc).