Top thinkers return for TED
1984
THE YEAR IT ALL BEGAN First TED conference was staged as one-time event
The annual TED conference, which returns to Vancouver for the 2015 edition, runs Monday to Friday, featuring 70 new speakers and performers and is expected to draw 1,300 attendees from 46 countries.
The conference was founded by architect/graphic designer Richard Saul Wurman as a one-off event to acknowledge the convergence of technology, education and design — TED — and now includes various scientific, cultural and academic topics. It became annual in 1990, when it was held in Monterey, Calif. As it grew in size it moved to Long Beach and Palm Springs, Calif., in 2009. It’s now run by media entrepreneur Chris Anderson through his New York-based nonprofit Sapling Foundation.
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INTERNET HITS Views of TED Talks online encompassing various spinoffs
Last year, with TED2014, the main TED Conference was moved to Vancouver, with TEDActive, a simulcast and cheaper version in Whistler. TED has spawned TEDGlobal, the TED Prize, TEDWomen, TEDSalon, TEDIndia, TED@, TEDCity, TED Talks Education, TEDYouth, TED University, TED Fellows, TED-Ed, TED Radio Hour and TEDx, local, independently organized events (more than 11,000 so far), to name a few. There are 1,900 TED Talks on TED.com and talks have been translated into 100-plus languages.
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MINUTES IN SPOTLIGHT Maximum time each speaker is given to engage audience with their ideas
Speaker who at TED2007 won a prize for his talk on Rebuilding Rwanda: U.S. President Bill Clinton. Scheduled TED2015 speaker: Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky, a social activist in the ‘Just and Unjust’session. Other notable past speakers: Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, physicist Stephen Hawking, comedian Sarah Silverman and musical band They Might Be Giants. Speakers scheduled for 2015: Perceptual navigation specialist Daniel Kish, roboticist Chris Urmson, exoplanet expert Sara Seager, Magik*Magik Orchestra music director Minna Choi and relationship therapist Esther Perel.
$8,500
COST IN AMERICAN DOLLARS What attendees — if approved — pay for a ticket for five days
TED2015 is sold out, at $10,785 Cdn (includes meals) a ticket; TEDActive in Whistler is $4,250 US. There are more perks for the $17,000 US“donor”and more still for the five-year $150,000 US “patron.”But the “fair market value” of a ticket is $2,500 US, so most of the fee is a tax writeoff, up to $112,500 for patrons. Attendees apply, so TED is“in one sense, yes” elitist, says ted.com: “We curate our speaker list ... and we ‘curate’ our audience at conferences to make sure we have a balanced, diverse group that can support our mission of bringing great ideas to the world for free.” And talks are free online, so it’s not elitist at all, it says.
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TALKS ON TED By far, greatest number of talks have been about TED itself
TED says there are no formal bans on any topic and it’s non-partisan but“not a place for one-sided arguments.”The top four topics, after TED itself, are technology (568), science (424), global issues (412) and design (332). Random others: aging (16), big bang (4), business (284), Christianity (3), comedy (25), death (15), evolution (50), failure (7), , nuclear energy (5), origami (2), poetry (40), rocket science (3), string theory (9), terrorism (19), war (77) and youth (30). The least talked about subjects? Dinosaurs and books (one talk each). There are no talks on social conservative issues, such as abortion or euthanasia.