TEDxSalem 2015 host announcement: 2013 alumnus Keith Seckel

Kei­th Seck­el is not flashy and he does­n’t demand your atten­tion. He has his own way of draw­ing you in, with a qui­et and under­stat­ed sin­cer­i­ty that makes you want to cling on to his every word.

His gen­tle pres­ence is what made him one of the most mem­o­rable speak­ers of the inau­gur­al TEDxSalem in 2013, with his touch­ing talk on death — and ulti­mate­ly — life.

These qual­i­ties are what make co-cura­tors Bri­an Hart and Car­lee Wright so excit­ed about hav­ing Kei­th host TEDxSalem at the Salem Con­ven­tion Cen­ter this fall.

There are many deci­sion that go into plan­ning a TEDx event, and find­ing the right host is up there with select­ing speak­ers. The job of a host involves many respon­si­bil­i­ties than might be read­i­ly vis­i­ble to the audi­ence.

“You are not only the guide for the audi­ence, explain­ing the flow of the event, but you are also the even­t’s ambas­sador,” Bri­an says. “Being the face of the event, they have to wear many hats, they are respon­si­ble for intro­duc­tions of the speak­ers, giv­ing the audi­ence the per­fect tease of what is about to come, but at the same time nev­er telling the audi­ence how to feel. They are also in charge of time-keep­ing, trou­bleshoot­ing, announce­ments, con­nec­tions and audi­ence engage­ment.”

Phew! Good thing this year’s event theme is “fear­less.” Kei­th has ful­ly embraced this big role.

He says he hopes to be effec­tive and invis­i­ble — to help the event run smooth­ly and com­fort­ably, but then get­ting out of the way to let the speak­ers shine.

“In oth­er words, through­out the day I want to be the semi-colon; the punc­tu­a­tion that gen­tly guides peo­ple from one space to anoth­er,” Kei­th said. “And at the end of the event as peo­ple think back on their expe­ri­ence, I want them to remem­ber the speak­ers and the break­out ses­sions — and sort of for­get about me.”

Please join us in wel­com­ing Kei­th back on the TEDxSalem stage.