What are TED Talks?
TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, and Design. TED is an annual conference that started in 1984 to unite the opinion leaders of these fields.
The caliber of these speakers makes this conference unique; past speakers include Bill Clinton, Jane Goodall, Stephen Hawking, J.J. Abrams, Bono, Al Gore, as well as the founders of companies like Virgin, Microsoft, Wikipedia, Amazon and Google. These individuals range widely in their interests and their approaches, but they all have made a significant impact in their fields.
Many of these speakers are using their success or fame to pursue humanitarian objectives. They are typically invited to TED not to talk about their past successes, but to describe the social and humanitarian goals they are now pursuing.
Registration is typically sold out a year in advance. To attend in 2010 registration must be completed at ted.com before the end of February, 2009.
There are two main styles of talks that I tend to enjoy:
1) A way to reduce poverty, halt disease or improve education by creating tools or opportunities for the individuals to lift themselves up. I am not a fan of charity as a one way flow- it is temporary and non-scalable. This is my most passionate theme. Wikipedia, GrameenPhone, Jacqueline Novogratz, One Laptop Per Child are all examples of how to build a scalable, socially responsible and self-sustaining project that improve the lives of people on grand scale.
2) Powerful individuals whose personal charisma alone makes their cause worth supporting. I became interested in lexicography, of all things, after listening to a talk by Erin McKean, and I start to think I really should learn the guitar every time I listen to Raul Midon.
I started this website to try and convince people that it was worthwhile to try and get into a TED conference, as I do not yet have the credits to get in myself.