TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design. An annual conference that brings together the most prominent and intelligent thinkers, inventors, philosophers, and artists of our time. Past presentations have included Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, as well as presentations by Jane Goodall, Bill Clinton, and Richard Dawkins.
TED’s mission? To spread ideas. (sound familiar in the library world?) According to their website, “We believe passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and ultimately, the world. So we’re building here a clearinghouse that offers free knowledge and inspiration from the world’s most inspired thinkers, and also a community of curious souls to engage with ideas and each other.”
The TED conference joins the most beautiful aspects of humanity, from the arts to current technology, and brings people together to share these ideas. The 2008 conference is being held right now, Feb 27-March 1. You can watch past and present TED presentations on their website. I really encourage everyone to watch some of these presentations. They are not your average college-professor lecture, but more a celebration of achievements made by charismatic, intelligent, professional leaders.
This year’s theme, “The Big Question,” asks questions such as “Who are We?” “What is Life?” “Is Beauty Truth?” and “What will Tomorrow Bring?”
There are some bloggers attending TED this year, offering live blog posts and updates about the current presentations. Al Gore will be presenting again this year, along with a multitude of other individuals who are at the top of their field.
Between presentations, TED shows short videos and commercials. Here is one from this morning:
On a side note, I want to attend a TED conference. To do this though, you must first become a TED member (for free), and then wait on a list until you are “invited” to attend a conference. As far as I cant tell, TED only invites members it believes will add conversationally to the TED community at it’s conferences. Once you are invited by TED, the price for sitting amongst the greatest minds in the world is 6,000 dollars. Boo. I guess I’m stuck watching their podcasts.
Filed under: By: Hip Shhusher, News | Leave a Comment
Tags: al gore, an Inconvenient truth, News, TED
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