I will post some more in the future about some of the most memorable presentations at the recent TED conference, but first it is worth contemplating why the conference is such a success - why 1,000 otherwise busy, accomplished individuals will commit a year in advance to spend the better part of a week in Monterey, California, pretty much disconnected from email, conference calls, and the demands of their day jobs. It comes down to three things, the program, the audience, and the venue.
While the list of speakers this year included the occasional mega-celebrity, such as Bill Clinton, Paul Simon, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Richard Branson, most of them are more likely to be known within a select community, such as Murray Gell-Mann (Nobel Prize in physics), John Doerr (known to everyone at in the computer industry), and Erin McKean (known to everyone in the dictionary business). Sometimes the work is better known than the author, such as Michael Pollan's Omnovore's Dilemma, J.J. Abrams' Lost, or Maira Kalman's New Yorker covers. Regardless of one's profession, some talks will be directly relevant (for the computer industry, the BumpTop and Multi-Touch user interfaces), some will be thought-provoking (John Maeda on simplicity), and others will be mind-expanding (Murray Gell-Mann on beauty as a criteria for judging scientifc theories.) The sessions are no longer than two hours, and the speakers can be counted on to stay within their allotted times (usually 18 minutes) and refrain from sales pitches. The most warmly received are those that give some insight into the speaker's passion for the subject, whether it be curing hunger or shooting things into outer space. This year the program included a number of shorter talks that were slotted in whenever there was five minutes to spare. Some were quite memorable, such as John Doerr's presentation on amateur rocketry or John Flowers' pictures of a Thai temple of the afterlife.
It has often been said that TED is the only conference where the attendees are even more impressive than the speakers. Certainly the audience includes many founders of big internet and software companies (Amazon, Google, eBay, PayPal, Priceline) and a smattering of movie stars (Cameron Diaz, Goldie Hawn, Meg Ryan, Forest Whitaker), but actually one can turn to any attendee at random and be guaranteed of having an interesting conversation and perhaps finding a future business partner or even a new lifelong friend. The two most common questions (recommended as conversation starters) are: "Have you been to TED before?" (usually yes) and "Are you coming next year?" (almost always yes, although this year with a sigh about the price tag which has gone up to $6,000 for next year.) The new management of the conference has made an effort to keep the TED momentum going throughout the year, with local events, periodic mailing of books, a growing web presence, and the TED Prize which supports several projects of potential world-wide import. Far from diluting the impact of the conference, the new initiatives have given it a sense of purpose and fostered a community which gets people returning year after year. The latter has become a high-class problem, with the next year's conference selling out a week after registration opened and increasing the pressure to expand the conference.
Since its inception, the TED conference has been held at the Monterey Conference Center in the Steinbeck Forum. This 494 seat theater has no center aisles. Instead, it has a wider than usual space between the rows and plush, comfortable seats, each one with an unobstructed view of the stage. The paradoxical effect is that more interaction occurs among the participants - think of how on an airplane you are more likely to talk to someone if you aren't jammed in next to them in the middle seat in coach. In recent years, the "simulcast room" was added to hold an overflow crowd of another 500 attendees. Originally these were people who signed up at the last minute, but the distinction has blurred as the conference has sold out earlier and earlier. Fortunately, this space has an attraction all its own - outfitted with comfortable furniture (including a bed with monitors on the ceiling), large HD screens, and interesting interactive exhibits of art and technology, such as a Tesla electric car. Attendees with simulcast room badges are allowed into the main hall if space is available. While this has led to some grumbling, it does eliminate the depressing effect of half-empty halls one sees on the last day of most conferences. There has been some discussion of finding a new, larger venue but it will be a challenge to find a place that will provide the same level of intimacy that has kept the TED community going all these years.
I'll write some more on the conference highlights. In the meantime, Bruno Giussani has covered the conference extensively on his blog.
