David Lavin, president of The Lavin Agency speakers bureau, has a lot of experience working with TED speakers—especially since he’s been one himself! As he tells negotiation and communication speaker Misha Glouberman in this exclusive discussion, the secret behind the success of TED is the people they put on stage. TED doesn’t pick  average, run-of-the-mill speakers to lead their lectures. Rather, they choose people who are “genuinely, passionately, engaged in doing something that’s incredible,” Lavin says. “People are hungry for content,” he continues. TED provides their attendees with an assortment of speakers who deliver quality content that inspires their audiences. We here at Lavin agree, and we represent an assortment of TED speakers sure to deliver rousing speeches no matter what the subject matter.

Here’s negotiation speaker Misha Glouberman talking about the importance of finding unseen solutions when solving problems.

In honor of the first 2012 Presidential Election Debate tonight, here’s Lavin Agency President and CEO David Lavin talking with communication speaker and The Chairs are Where the People Go co-author Misha Glouberman about the ineffective nature of today’s debate formats. They both argue that most debates are set up to encourage disagreement and head-butting, rather than to fully explore each candidate’s stance on the key issues. It would be much more revealing to find out what the candidates actually agree on, says Lavin and Glouberman, than to rehash partisan talking points.

Why do most Q&A’s at conferences suck? Because they’re not properly run, says Lavin speaker Misha Glouberman. The Q&A is the only real factor that differentiates a live talk from a taped one, and as such, it is an extremely vital part of any talk, speech, or conference. How does Glouberman improve the Q&A sessions at his legendary speaking series? By providing the audience with guidelines for what makes a good question, encouraging curiosity, and discouraging grandstanding. “It’s not really hard to make [a Q&A] run well,” says Glouberman, “but you have to think about it.”