Doing a TEDx Talk – Up There With My Greatest Memories

Just a few days after delivering my TEDx Talk at TEDx Omagh, I am still buzzing and on a high. I still have to pinch myself to think, “Dermot, you are a TEDx speaker now!” Not something I ever thought would happen, but seems to be part of my upward journey.

Last year I summited an application to do a talk titled “My Story, My Way”. Not because I felt I was something special, but because others told me I had a story that needed to be shared. I was delighted to learn that TEDx agreed with them and I was one of the selected speakers.

That was the easy part, now I had to write my speech. I had a full 7 months to write it. I had many different ideas on what it should be about and many different ideas on how it should be delivered. At one point, I even thought about writing a little verse for the middle of it, and then I remembered I couldn’t sing. I didn’t want to empty the auditorium!

In the end, I felt that my talk was strong enough to stand on it’s own two feet and I went for the straight speech delivery. On reflection, I think it worked best. However, the wannabe comedian in me couldn’t resist in slipping in a few humorous slants to my stories.

So began the speech writing, I sat down and wrote what was basically my life story in condensed form, about all the challenges I have faced throughout my life and how they made me feel and how I overcame them. I have often shared elements of my life in the past.

The TEDx Omagh team was fantastic throughout this whole adventure. Between coordinator Matthew and Catherine who managed the social media scene, they were always on call to offer me support and advice.  Matt did a fantastic job in bringing TEDx to Omagh and giving us all a fantastic array of speakers covering lots of interesting topics and subject matters. I have no doubt after Monday, that this is the beginning of a great relationship between Omagh and TEDx.

Being on stage, delivering my talk was one of the scariest things I have ever done, but definitely one of the most rewarding experiences. People have often heard snippets of my life story before and some say I am a very open person. However, surprisingly, there are certain areas of my life that I am very guarded about. With TEDx Omagh, I opened up and spoke about my feelings and everything that has happened to me. I had never done that before in front of a large audience who were focused solely on me. The rush of emotions afterwards was unbelievable and will always carry with me. One of the few times I admitted to myself, “Dermot, you did good. Well done!” Thank you TEDx Omagh.

There were 16 other great speakers. Some were friends, some were people I have interacted with online over the years and some were people I had heard of. Each and every one of them was excellent. All had different stories to tell and each one of them was powerful, with an important message. We are now a TEDx Family.

In order of appearance:

Lord Alderdice, Jim Breen, Joanne Sweeney-Burke, Ben Smithwell, Carol Brill, Anita Dennison, Samantha Kelly, Josh Bachynski, Martin Dowson, Terry McHugh, Liam O’Neill, Siobhan O’Neill, Maria Walsh, Emer Maguire, and Catherine Brogan.

Nick O’Shiel of Omagh Enterprise Centre (and my boss!) MC’d the event and did a fantastic job.

Once the video of my talk becomes available, I shall post it for everyone to watch.

Joanne Sweeney-Burke and Dermot Devlin

My family
Simon Goodwin, Eoghan Devlin and Brian Devlin

Dermot Devlin and Prof Siobhan O’Neill

BR: Joanne Sweeney-Burke and Nick O’Shiel
FR: Carol Brill, Dermot Devlin and Samantha Kelly

Joanne Sweeney-Burke, Anita Dennison and Dermot Devlin