Our Experience.
Since 2007, we—the founders of KuMo&Co—have attended fourteen TED events, in eleven cities, in eight countries, on five continents. In that time, we have seen over five hundred talks delivered live on the TED stage. We have witnessed firsthand what goes into preparing TED speakers. At times, we have actively participated in the process. We played leading roles in staging the first TEDxSoweto event in 2010, and have been organising TEDxJohannesburg since 2013. In all, we have more than thirty events behind them. We have combined this considerable wealth in learnings with a collective forty years of brand communications expertise to help leaders give great talks, pitches, and presentations, and tell memorable stories that strike meaningful connections with their audiences.
We have translated this rich experience into engagements, collaborations, and partnerships with an assortment of organisations in South Africa and worldwide over the years.
TEDxJohannesburg | Speaker coaching for innovators
TEDxJohannesburg is one of the most significant TEDx events in Africa. The organisers set out to find remarkable people doing great work and amplify their ideas on the worldwide web. Since 2013, the co-founders of KuMo&Co have been the primary curators and speaker coaches at TEDxJohannesburg. Overall, their work has helped more than 300 people step up to the TEDx stage. The resulting talks have been watched more than ten million times on YouTube and TED.com.
Aspen New Voices | Speaker coaching for activists
The Aspen New Voices Fellowship offers development experts from Africa, Asia, and Latin America a year-long programme of media support, advocacy lessons, and writing, under the guidance of experienced mentors and trainers. Since 2013, our team has given selected fellows guidance on how to navigate the TEDx ecosystem, plus coaching on how to give great talks. Nine of the fellows have made it onto the lineups of various TEDx events worldwide.
Dell Young Leaders | Speaker coaching for youth
Only two in five South African students from low-income backgrounds will complete university. The Dell Young Leaders (DYL) program helps students navigate common barriers to graduation. With the programme’s support, students succeed in university and launch meaningful careers. To this end, the DYL invited us to conduct versions of our WalkYourTalk workshop for three different groups of various sizes, in Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Durban.
Bain Academy | Speaker coaching for executives
Bain Academy designs and delivers executive leadership interventions with a focus on transformation. Their programmes focus on the whole leader, providing tools to enhance their efficacy in strategy, results delivery, and personal resilience. In 2017, Bain invited the founders of KuMo&Co to run a workshop on effective public speaking with that year's cohort of twenty senior executives from Anglo American, Transnet, and the South African Reserve Bank.
Momentum | Sourcing international speakers
Momentum runs their She Owns Her Success event every August during Women's Month, showcasing iconic women in talks and masterclasses. The lockdown of 2020 offered an opportunity to stage the event virtually and invite an international speaker. With little time left, we secured Esther Wojcicki, Godmother of Silicon Valley, and mother of three superwomen: the CEO of YouTube, a professor of paediatrics, and the founder of 23andMe.
The Loeries | Activating our extensive global networks
The Loeries Creative Week is Africa and the Middle East’s premier event that brings together influential minds from across the region to celebrate creative excellence. Usually, this is an in-person event, but in 2020 it had to be virtual. Our brief was to put together an international lineup. Through our extensive global networks, we managed to secure speakers from New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington DC, Lisbon, and of course, Johannesburg.
Mandela Poster Project | Presenting keynote addresses
In May 2013, a group of South African designers celebrated Nelson Mandela's life by collecting posters worldwide, honouring Madiba's contribution to humanity. They curated the collection and sent it out to special exhibitions around the world. As founding members of the group, the co-founders of KuMo&Co were responsible for traveling to open the various exhibitions with keynote addresses. So far, they've done so in Melbourne, São Paulo, and New York.
TED Residency | Speaking at TED, firsthand learning
The TED Residency program (2016–2019) was an incubator for breakthrough ideas, open to all via a competitive application. Those chosen as TED Residents spent fourteen weeks at TED headquarters in New York City, collaborating on their ideas. Each Resident also developed a TED Talk. Kelo Kubu, a co-founder of KuMo&Co, was among them. Throughout her time in the Residency, she experienced firsthand TED’s rigorous speaker preparation process.
TED Global 2017 | Hosting at TED, a behind-the-scenes view
TEDGlobal 2017 happened in August 2017, in Arusha, Tanzania. As a well-regarded member and a vital contributor to the global TED community, TED invited KuMo&Co co-founder Kelo Kubu to co-host the event alongside Chris Anderson, the head of TED. The event offered a close-up, sneak preview of the African continent's likely future leadership, and the experience gave her an invaluable behind-the-scenes perspective on the inner workings of a major TED event.