Harassment allegations strike at core of TED talks
When Gretchen Carlson, a former Fox News anchor who now campaigns against sexual harassment, took the stage at a TED event this month, she described 2017 as a tipping point in the fight against workplace misconduct.
But behind the scenes, TED owner Chris Anderson and other senior officials had been grappling with accusations for much of the year that their own conferences, famed for turning short speeches by leading figures into viral videos, had not been a safe place for women — and that the atmosphere of predatory male behavior was getting worse.
At least five people, including a past main stage speaker, told TED officials that they were harassed or groped during the organization’s flagship conference in Vancouver, British Columbia, in April, according to interviews and email correspondence seen by the Washington Post.
The nonprofit’s general counsel Nishat Ruiter said in an April email to TED’s senior leadership that she, too, had been “touched inappropriately but let it go.” She added she was finding it difficult to believe the issue was being “addressed by TED effectively. We are clearly not doing enough.”
In a statement to the Post, TED acknowledged several incidents had occurred at the Vancouver conference and said it has taken action.
“We did hear from a small number of women attendees at TED2017 about harassment. As a result, two men were immediately disinvited and won’t be returning,” TED said.
In the decades since TED’s original owners got the idea of turning 18-minute talks by world leaders, chief executives, academics, artists and others into a business under the slogan “ideas worth spreading,” the conferences and spin-off events have become known as a meeting place for the global elite, particularly leaders in the technology industry. Anderson’s private foundation acquired TED in 2001.
The gatherings are regarded as a place where the likes of former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates, scientist Richard Dawkins and former Vice President Al Gore could be encountered in the hallways, and the organization’s talks have been watched online more than 1 billion times worldwide.
Most people pay $10,000 to attend and must apply for tickets.
The Post reviewed email exchanges among senior TED officials at the time of the April conference, sparked by a complaint by a longtime attendee, who complained of sexual harassment and being offered “every drug known to man.” The problem was so bad that the woman decided to pack her bags and leave, telling Anderson that it would be her last TED conference.
Anderson forwarded the complaint to his leadership team, saying, “I don’t want to overstate what’s here (until we can find more) but I do think we’ll need to think seriously about what more we can do.”
Tom Rielly, the organization’s director of partnerships, wrote in response that harassment had occurred in past years.
“I’m afraid as difficult as it is to talk about, experiences like this have been going on for years, to varying degrees,” Rielly wrote. “I agree this is absolutely heartbreaking and stomach turning.” He also suggested that alcohol could be fueling the misconduct.
Ruiter, the general counsel, said that she had heard of more such incidents at this year’s conference.
“I heard from so many women unprompted about the type of advances that were everywhere, and that felt ‘different’ from years past,” Ruiter wrote. “This included a TED Prize winner and two TEDsters who spoke to me about this and more than one staff member.”
TED did not make Anderson, Rielly or Ruiter available for interviews. The three did not respond to personal inquiries.
Nilofer Merchant, an author and former Apple executive whose 2013 TED talk received nearly 3 million views, said in an interview that sexual harassment is not a new problem for the TED conferences.
“The same thing was happening 5 years ago. It’s still happening,” she said. “What’s different now is we’re sharing our stories.”
At the April conference, Merchant said a longtime attendee pressed his erection against her at a bar. She recalls mouthing to her friend who was nearby: Help me.
“In this awkward moment, you’re trying not to make it an issue,” she said in an interview. “I’m trying to spend my time at TED, which I paid $10,000 to attend, talking to people about ideas and not worry about the guy with his boner pressed against me.”
Merchant said she saw the same man approach two of her friends, who were talking to a TED newcomer in her early 20s, and say, “Oh, three black women together. What should I do with that?”
She reported the incidents to TED officials. She said she was only told Thursday that the man she had reported had been banned.
TED told the Post that in November of last year it had inserted language to its code of conduct for attendees that specifically prohibited harassment “in any form” and added a reporting process for incidents. In the summer, TED included additional language that banned “sexual harassment of any kind, including unwelcome sexual attention and inappropriate physical contact.” It also began to promote the policy actively to attendees, mentioning it from the stage.
Big corporate conferences, including TED, present a particular challenge in setting standards of appropriate behavior because of the blend of work and socializing and because attendees are not direct employees.
In Silicon Valley, such events are seen as crucial to cultivating relationships that could lead to business deals. TED says its conferences are for “high-level relationship building,” and forbid direct sales pitches.
Jess Ladd, a TED fellow and founder of Callisto, a nonprofit dedicated to fighting sexual assault, said conferences often involve alcohol and offsite networking, which can open the door to improper interactions.
“If your boss harasses you, you know you can go to HR,” she said. “But if it’s a powerful investor or an academic in your field, it’s really hard to know what to do and what your options are.”
Conferences approach the problem in different ways. The World Economic Forum’s annual gathering in Davos, Switzerland, said it screens attendees who are not heads of state or chief executives, and revokes invitations if it learns of misconduct.
Some conferences have been updating their policies in light of recent high-profile sexual harassment scandals.
Summit, which attracts an elite technology industry crowd, updated its sexual harassment policy this year to include language that explicitly bans “unwelcome sexual attention,” “inappropriate physical contact,” and “sexual images in public spaces.”
South by Southwest, an annual gathering in Austin, Texas, said it has a broad code of conduct that does not specifically mention a ban on sexual harassment by attendees (it bans harassment of all kinds). On its website, DEF CON publishes a similar code of conduct. The Aspen Ideas Festival said it has no published harassment policy for attendees, but it encourages staff to report incidents.
The accusations against TED come at a time when allegations of sexual harassment and abuse by powerful men are roiling Hollywood, Silicon Valley and the U.S. Congress.
The heightened awareness of sexual misconduct in the workplace and other professional settings was sparked in part by Carlson, who reached a $20 million settlement with Fox in 2016 after suing her old boss Roger Ailes for sexual harassment.
“Right now is the tipping point,” Carlson said at the TEDWomen conference in New Orleans this month, choking up at points throughout her 14-minute speech. “We are watching history happen. More and more women are coming forward and saying, ‘Enough is enough.’ ”
The conversation between the leadership of TED in April was set off by an email from Brooke Hammerling, the founder of Brew Media Relations.
On April 27, as the annual conference was under way in Vancouver, she wrote an email to Anderson, saying she had felt “fearful as a female” at the event and had decided to leave a day early.
“This is my last TED,” she wrote, according to the messages viewed by the Post.
“I was told by different people many married that for example I was hot, my figure was awesome, did I sleep with” — she named a technology celebrity — “and I was asked why I wasn’t married because I was ‘hot’ so should be able to land a dude,” Hammerling wrote. “I was offered every drug known to man ... I was pushed. Literally pushed.”
“Wow, this just about made me throw up,” Anderson responded.
In an interview Friday, Hammerling said: “I was really uncomfortable and disturbed by it, as were other women who were in the vicinity.”
She praised the initial response by Anderson as “wonderful” and said she had been reimbursed for her attendance.
“He was upset about it and responded to me immediately,” she said. “We got together on the phone and I gave them my suggestions.”
After that: “I never heard anything,” she said.
“TED is meant to be a different experience,” Hammerling said. “It’s meant to be a collective of thoughtful people who have taken time — at great expense — to learn and expand, to be part of something really beautiful. It’s supposed to be a safe environment.”
“I heard from so many women unprompted about the type of advances that were everywhere, and that felt ‘different’ from years past.” TED general counsel Nishat Ruiter