Curation

The work of choosing what goes on the program and what does not. Most of it is saying no, because every slot you fill is a slot you cannot give to someone better later. The useful reframe is to search for ideas rather than for names: if everything you can say about a potential guest is about who they are rather than what they will actually say, you have found a name and not yet a talk. Curation is also the reason the integrity rule exists. A schedule that can be bought is not curated, it is sold.

Source: The TEDx Organizer Guide’s speakers chapter, which states the principle directly (“Look for ideas, not speakers”) and recommends a selection committee rather than a single decider, warning that too small a group thinks narrowly and too large a group defaults to the most agreeable choice. The DevOpsDays Organizing Guide supplies the constraint that protects the practice: “No sponsor should be able to buy their way into the program. The schedule should be decided by your local organizers.”

First used in: 2.5 · Program design: the show people remember.