TED (conference)

TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "ideas worth spreading". TED was founded by Richard Saul Wurman and Harry Marks in February 1984 as a tech conference, in which gave a demo of the compact disc that was invented in October 1982. It has been held annually since 1990. TED covers almost all topics – from science to business to global issues – in more than 100 languages. To date, more than 13,000 TEDx events have been held in at least 150 countries.

TED's early emphasis was on technology and design, consistent with its Silicon Valley origins. It has since broadened its perspective to include talks on many scientific, cultural, political, humanitarian, and academic topics. It has been curated by Chris Anderson, a British-American businessman, through the non-profit TED Foundation since July 2019 (originally by the non-profit Sapling Foundation).

The main TED conference is held annually in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, at the Vancouver Convention Centre. The first TED conferences from 1984 (TED1) through 2008 (TED2008) were held at the Monterey Conference Center in Monterey, California. Between 2009 and 2014, the conference was held in Long Beach, California, United States. TED events are also held throughout North America and in Europe, Asia, and Africa, offering live streaming of the talks. TED returned to Monterey, California in 2021 with TEDMonterey. They address a wide range of topics within the research and practice of science and culture, often through storytelling.

Since June 2006, TED Talks have been offered for free viewing online, under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives Creative Commons license, through TED.com. over 3,500 TED Talks are freely available on the official website. In June 2011, TED Talks' combined viewing figures surpassed 500 million, and by November 2012, TED Talks had been watched over one billion times worldwide. While TED Talks are available for free online to be viewed by anyone, sharing TED content in commercial contexts (for example, in corporate learning and talent development) requires a license.

History

1984–1999: Founding and early years

TED was conceived in 1984 by Emmy-winning broadcast and graphic designer Harry Marks, who observed a convergence of the fields of technology, entertainment, and design (that is, "TED"). He approached architect and graphic designer Richard Saul Wurman for assistance, who agreed on the condition that he were to be a co-founder. The first conference, organized that same year by Marks and Wurman with help from Dr. Frank Stanton, featured demos of the compact disc, co-developed by Philips and Sony and one of the first demonstrations of the Apple Macintosh computer. Presentations were given by famous mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot and influential members of the digerati community, like Nicholas Negroponte and Stewart Brand. The event was financially unsuccessful; hence, it took six years before the second conference was organized.

TED2 was held at the Monterey Conference Center in California in 1990. From 1990 onward, a growing community of "TEDsters" gathered annually with Wurman leading the conference in Monterey until 2009, when it was relocated to Long Beach, California, due to a substantial increase in attendees. Initially, the speakers had been drawn from the fields of expertise behind the acronym TED, but during the 1990s, the roster of presenters broadened to include scientists, philosophers, musicians, religious leaders, philanthropists, and many others.

2000–present: Recent growth

In 2000, Wurman, looking for a successor at age 65, met with new-media entrepreneur and TED enthusiast Chris Anderson to discuss future happenings. Anderson's UK media company Future bought TED. In November 2001, Anderson's non-profit The Sapling Foundation (motto: "fostering the spread of great ideas") acquired TED from Future for £6m. In February 2002, Anderson gave a TED Talk in which he explained his vision of the conference and his future role of curator. Wurman left after the 2002 conference.

In 2006, attendance cost was $4,400 per person and was by invitation only. The membership model was shifted in January 2007 to an annual membership fee of $6,000, which includes attendance of the conference, club mailings, networking tools, and conference DVDs. The 2018 conference was $10,000 per attendee.

Between 2001 and 2006, TED upgraded its platform to have TED talks online for free, added TEDGlobal that became a worldwide conference, and created the TED prize.

In 2014, the conference was relocated to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

TED is currently funded by a combination of various revenue streams, including conference attendance fees, corporate sponsorships, foundation support, licensing fees, and book sales. Corporate sponsorships are diverse, provided by companies such as Google, GE, AOL, Goldman Sachs, and The Coca-Cola Company. Sponsors do not participate in the creative direction of the event, nor are they allowed to present on the main stage, in the interests of independence.

In 2015, TED staff consisted of about 180 people headquartered in New York City and Vancouver, British Columbia. On July 1, 2019, the TED Conferences LLC was transferred from Sapling Foundation to TED Foundation to "align with our brand and make it easier for our donors to connect TED donations to TED Conferences, LLC."

At TED 2015, Bill Gates warned that the world was not prepared for the next pandemic, a situation that would come to pass in late 2019 when the COVID-19 pandemic began. The ensuing pandemic prompted the 2020 edition of the event to be initially postponed from April to July 2020 before its outright cancellation.

In 2021, TED launched the TED Audio Collective with a number of podcasts featuring previous TED Talks and other relevant topics.

TED 2022 was held in Vancouver. There was criticism after Marvin Rees, Mayor of Bristol, flew to speak about climate change and the need for reduced carbon emissions.

TED Prize

The TED Prize was introduced in 2005. Until 2010, it annually granted three individuals $100,000 and a "wish to change the world". Each winner unveils their wish at the main annual conference. Since 2010, in a changed selection process, a single winner is chosen to ensure that TED can maximize its efforts in achieving the winner's wish. In 2012, the prize was not awarded to an individual, but to a concept connected to the current global phenomenon of increasing urbanization. In 2013, the prize amount was increased to $1 million. TED Prize winners in previous years:

TED Conference commissioned New York artist Tom Shannon to create a prize sculpture to be given to all TED Prize winners. The sculpture consists of an aluminum sphere magnetically levitated above a walnut disc. As of 2018 the TED Prize has been recast as The Audacious Project.

TED.com

In 2005, Chris Anderson hired June Cohen as Dir