A Peek Inside TED

TED is both closed and open. On the one hand, it's an event that you need to be invited to attend, but on the other, it also spends an incredible amount of time, energy and money to give people access to the content of its talks. (For example, the TEDx platform, which builds community around that content.) So in this post, my goal is to give readers a sense of what it actually looks like to be at the TED conference itself.

Each TED has a theme that anchors the content of the event. This year, the theme is "What the World Needs Now." The theme is a particularly appropriate theme for beginning a new year and a new decade.

The conference talks are organized in sets of four, each of which offers a series of talks that proposes an answer to that question. This morning is "Mindshift," "Discovery" and "Action." Tomorrow and Friday include "Boldness," Reason" and "Wisdom." The talks fit the categories, but only loosely. It's more up to the attendee to cobble together the pieces and make them make sense.

Each TED talk has certain similarities. A talk is an 18-minute presentation, in which the speaker is obviously allowed to speak about their expertise, but is supposed to diligently try to avoid pitching their own project or company. Most importantly, the speeches are supposed to be the best the presenter has ever done. This raises the bar on quality and makes presenters try even harder.

The composition of the speakers is, like the attendees, a diverse blend of scientists, doctors, technologists, philanthropists, artists, musicians and more. This gives TED the ability to represent the broad spectrum of who's out there working to make a better world. If this year is anything like past years, there will almost certainly be surprises. Last year, for example, Bill Gates released a live mosquito into the crowd as he began his talk on malaria.

In and around the speakers, people congregate in the nine social spaces. They each have hosts and sponsors, and are meant to give people a different chance to engage with other attendees with similar passions.

Most of the evenings, TED puts together gatherings. One of the things I'm impressed with is the extent to which they use "special-invitation emails" to make everyone feel important, even if everyone is being invited to these events. I've also been impressed with the openness of the community. The norm is to say hello to everyone, not to -- as is so often the case at conferences -- size up each new person in terms of what they can do for you and move on as quickly as you've established their relevance or irrelevance.

Today, the meat of the conference begins. I'm looking forward to seeing how the experience of watching speakers is amplified or challenged when you're seeing so many in a row, and you're sharing it with a roomful of others. I'm also looking forward to capturing the boldest, most important ideas to share here with readers at Change.org.

Photo Credit: WhiteAfrican