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.

In this candid interview, David Lavin, President and CEO of The Lavin Agency, talks about the impact that TED Fellows have on our world.

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.

Virginia Heffernan, author of Magic and Loss: The Pleasures of the Internet, visited Lavin NYC this week.

Dr. Jared Diamond, the author of Guns, Germs and Steel and an upcoming book on tribal societies, stopped by Lavin’s Toronto offices today. Last night, he delivered a speech at the Royal Ontario Museum to a capacity crowd of well over a thousand people. Sporting a stylish red blazer, the Pulitzer Prize-winner and “celebrity” scientist talked to us about what we can learn from tribal societies and discussed the role of geography in determining human rights. Though he’s a serious academic, Dr. Diamond was delightful and hilarious in person. At one point, he stopped an anecdote on tribal education to riff on lackadaisical teenagers and California stereotypes. He’s articulate, he’s funny, he’s personable, and he can call upon thousands of years of history at a second’s notice. If only all scientists were this engaging! 

(Above, Dr. Jared Diamond with David Lavin, president of The Lavin Agency)