TED

Have you found TED yet? About a year ago I was talking to a friend and she suggested I might be interested in this fascinating website. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It was founded by Richard Saul Wurman and Harry Marks in 1984, and this conference has been held annually since 1990. Wurman left after the 2002 conference and Chris Anderson now hosts the event. The TED website launched in April 2007.

What a think tank! TED brings together some of the greatest minds and inspired thinkers of our time. They definitely leave their egos at the door as they have approximately 18 minutes to give the talk of their lives and everyone participates in the same way. There are no Q&A’s, no round table discussions and no selling from the stage. There are currently 341 speakers listed as having participated in TED Talks including former U.S. President Bill Clinton, Tipping Point author Malcolm Gladwell, author Richard Dawkins, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Jane Goodall, musician Paul Simon, former V.P. of the U.S. Al Gore, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, cellist Yo Yo Ma and Tony Robbins.

The annual TED Conference takes place over four days in Long Beach, CA and the event sells out a year in advance. If you are fortunate enough to get invited the standard registration cost is $6,000 which includes attendance of the conference, club mailings, networking tools and conference DVDs.

I recommend you do yourself a favor, take 20 minutes out of your day and click here to be inspired, intrigued and perhaps motivated to think beyond your own self limitations.

This quote is from the talk Barry Schwartz presented on the paradox of choice:

The good news: You don’t need to be brilliant to be wise. The bad news: Without wisdom brilliance isn’t enough.

His thought provoking talk happens to be my favorite this week and you can click here to view.