Another successful communication training: TEDx Balaton with Janka Kocsis

After an intensive period of preparation, many online tests and a lot of excitement, the phone rang: Janka Kocsis, President of the Conscious Use of Medicines Association, has made it through! She will be performing live on the TEDx Balaton stage. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves!

We have a long working relationship with the Association for the Conscious Use of Medicines. After winning the prestigious Anna Richter Prize, they were determined to get the Hungarian public to manage their pharmaceutical waste properly. Just as our advertising agency BURIBA is famous for marketing gamification, we created two gamification-based educational campaigns for them, showing the correct and incorrect use of medicines and waste management. The campaigns engaged thousands of people in a healthier and more environmentally conscious approach, and the collaboration ended with a shortlist, courtesy of Internet Hungary – to the delight of all. Luckily, the association’s founder, Janka Kocsis, felt it was time for the next big thing.

Janka was told by an existing client that one of the services offered by our advertising agency BURIBA is to prepare for TED Talks and other high-profile public speaking engagements, as well as to train speakers in rhetoric and presentation for major conferences. The information couldn’t have come from a better source than one of our dearest clients, M. Anna Sevcsik, founder of the Babagenetika Association. We had previously prepared her for the TED Talk in Budapest, which was also a resounding success, as this video testifies.

Janka Kocsis is incredibly smart, smart, and also very kind. Perhaps it is because he has the seriousness of a doctor of pharmacy, the temperament of a rock musician and the humility of a world-changing NGO worker that he is so authentic and engaging. There was no doubt in our minds that he was right for the TED stage.

Janka and I had 4 weeks until the finals. We met three times a week online. At the first meeting, we asked him to tell us why he had applied to TED and roughly what he wanted to talk about during his presentation. The second meeting was a big in-depth interview, where Janka told us about her life from childhood, how she got to the stage she’s at now, how she became an advocate for conscious drug use, and what made her decide to take the TEDx stage. In the following discussion, we figured out the structure and the main communication message of his speech. We then wrote the speech based on Janka’s personal account of her experience. Then the communication training really started.

At BURIBA Advertising Agency, we believe that when writing a speech, the most important thing is that the text is 100% self-identical with the speaker, so that every word is a product of the speaker’s own wordsmithing.

That’s why, in subsequent meetings, we have gone through the text word by word, sentence by sentence. We would read it out loud, and then Janka would read it out loud, so that she could feel what it was like to say the words. Then the relentless proofreading began. We took out words, inserted other phrases, pulled out the client’s slang, added a few jokes and corrected the text until none of us could tell who had added what, because it all sounded so natural.

The above process is a real team effort, a very interesting process because we as an agency learn a lot about an industry and also about the client. Through the above correction, we discovered words like waterbaby or bubblegum, and learned more about landmines and the consequences of peeing in the water. But that’s enough for now, we don’t want to get ahead of the jokes or the educational stories.

The final and most exciting part of the communication training was the creation of “performances”. With Janka, you could really create something big, all of our imaginations were just soaring, Janka was up for anything. When it came to it, she gesticulated vigorously, when the text called for it, she stood silently for seconds, and then the next moment she would theatrically upset everything around her.

Janka Kocsis was one of our greatest clients because she managed to master all the communication skills and performing tricks in such a way that everything about her performance emphasised the importance of what she had to say. Every word and movement she made supported the mission of her mind and heart.

After Janka called us and told us with overwhelming joy that she had made it through and that the judges loved her speech, we felt a sense of calmness along with euphoria. We knew that she was ready to give her speech in front of hundreds of people at any moment. Thanks to the TEDx program, Janka also got a TED coach who, while keeping 90% of the original text and performances, gave Janka some more great tips.

Now, check out the speech of Janka Kocsis, President of the Association for Conscious Drug Use, on the TEDx Balaton stage.

Congratulations Janka!

If you’re about to make a similar, very important public appearance, please contact us. We can help!