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Diverse Talents at TED
Dan Fost, Chronicle Staff Writer
Ed. Note: Bono was announced as a winner of a TED prize last year. Read more about that announcement here.
Where can you find James Watson, the Nobel Prize winner who co- discovered the structure of DNA, on a panel with an environmental photographer, a physicist, and an author of a book on nature? And where other panelists range from Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart to genome-mapper Craig Venter and playwright-actor Anna Deavere Smith?
At TED, the annual Technology, Entertainment and Design conference, which returns to Monterey this week.
TED marks its 20th anniversary this year. Although it's no longer run by Richard Saul Wurman, the eclectic impresario who founded it, it still promises to assemble an array of big thinkers from business, the arts and science for an intense four days of brainstorming big ideas and networking.
Attendees of the invitation-only event -- about 900 people paid $4,400 for the privilege of being there -- are often just as interesting as the speakers. In previous years, the audience has included media mogul Rupert Murdoch, Amazon.com Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos, and Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page.
TED lays claim to being the place where many great ideas have been hatched or at least announced. Wired magazine is said to have received its funding there. The Apple Macintosh and Sony compact disc were introduced there.
Wurman, who hasn't attended the conference since he sold it to new-media mogul Chris Anderson three years ago, recalls hundreds of TED moments, including what he called a brilliant talk by the Rev. Billy Graham after "everyone gave me a hard time about inviting him," a great conversation with architect Frank Gehry and the last major speech by Dr. Jonas Salk, developer of the polio vaccine.
There was also a duet with Herbie Hancock and Makoto Ozone that "Quincy Jones called one of the best two duets he ever heard on a stage," Wurman said.
"There was a moment when a beautiful young lady, I was talking to her on stage, and she takes off her legs. The audience didn't know they were artificial," he said.
Wurman said he created the conference in his own image, figuring that if he followed his interests, the audience would too.
Tim Brown, CEO of Palo Alto design firm Ideo and a TED attendee for the past several years, said the diversity of participants has always stimulated him.
"I've got to have new insights, new things pouring into my eyes and ears to have new ideas, and TED is three days of that," Brown said.
"There's always a mix ," he said, referring to the broad range of events, like hearing scientist Craig Venter discussing his ambitious plan to catalog unknown marine life and hearing teenage piano prodigy Jennifer Lin compose something onstage for the TED audience.
Under Anderson's nonprofit Sapling Foundation, the conference has taken a broader look at how all the brainpower it attracts could help make the world a better place.
"It felt right after Sept. 11. It became very right and natural that everyone try to figure out their priorities," Anderson said. "What can we do with our skills and talents that would be fun? What are some cool ideas for tackling our problems?"
Anderson's cool idea is the TED Prize, to be awarded for the first time this week. A secret panel of judges, including Anderson, sifted through nominations from TED participants and chose three winners, each of whom gets $100,000 to spend as he or she wishes.
The winners also were granted three wishes, which they will reveal at TED, in hopes that attendees will help make them come true. The prize money comes from TED, which will turn a $1.5 million profit this year.
This year's winners are rock star Bono, who will appear via satellite; Toronto photographer Edward Burtynsky, who documents the impact humans have on the planet; and inventor Robert Fischell, whose work includes a satellite system that was a key precursor to the Global Positioning System, an implantable cardiac defibrillator and an implantable insulin pump.
"The TED Prize is a bet on the capability of the TED community," Anderson said. "If you find a way of inspiring 900 people with the skills, talents, energy and resources of the TED crowd, something magical could result."
Anderson has heard some of the wishes and says they're "big, bold, creative wishes."
Anderson is also taking TED international, with the first TED Global set for May in England.
Meanwhile, Wurman, his predecessor, is ready to get back into the conference game now that the three-year noncompetition clause has expired.
Next February he will sponsor The Entertainment Gathering, a Los Angeles celebration of the wonders of American media.
Wurman hasn't been involved in TED since he sold it. "There hasn't been a very large welcome mat out," he said. "That's not criticism. It's just a fact. I have enough places to go."
He said he's heard Anderson is doing a good job, and Anderson laughed when asked about Wurman. "He's quirky, he's brilliant, he can be difficult," Anderson said.
"Anyone who does business with Richard always has a rich story to be told. As much as I love Richard, I would love him to be involved in TED when the time's right."
Thanks hotpepper!
Dan Fost, Chronicle Staff Writer
Ed. Note: Bono was announced as a winner of a TED prize last year. Read more about that announcement here.
Where can you find James Watson, the Nobel Prize winner who co- discovered the structure of DNA, on a panel with an environmental photographer, a physicist, and an author of a book on nature? And where other panelists range from Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart to genome-mapper Craig Venter and playwright-actor Anna Deavere Smith?
At TED, the annual Technology, Entertainment and Design conference, which returns to Monterey this week.
TED marks its 20th anniversary this year. Although it's no longer run by Richard Saul Wurman, the eclectic impresario who founded it, it still promises to assemble an array of big thinkers from business, the arts and science for an intense four days of brainstorming big ideas and networking.
Attendees of the invitation-only event -- about 900 people paid $4,400 for the privilege of being there -- are often just as interesting as the speakers. In previous years, the audience has included media mogul Rupert Murdoch, Amazon.com Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos, and Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page.
TED lays claim to being the place where many great ideas have been hatched or at least announced. Wired magazine is said to have received its funding there. The Apple Macintosh and Sony compact disc were introduced there.
Wurman, who hasn't attended the conference since he sold it to new-media mogul Chris Anderson three years ago, recalls hundreds of TED moments, including what he called a brilliant talk by the Rev. Billy Graham after "everyone gave me a hard time about inviting him," a great conversation with architect Frank Gehry and the last major speech by Dr. Jonas Salk, developer of the polio vaccine.
There was also a duet with Herbie Hancock and Makoto Ozone that "Quincy Jones called one of the best two duets he ever heard on a stage," Wurman said.
"There was a moment when a beautiful young lady, I was talking to her on stage, and she takes off her legs. The audience didn't know they were artificial," he said.
Wurman said he created the conference in his own image, figuring that if he followed his interests, the audience would too.
Tim Brown, CEO of Palo Alto design firm Ideo and a TED attendee for the past several years, said the diversity of participants has always stimulated him.
"I've got to have new insights, new things pouring into my eyes and ears to have new ideas, and TED is three days of that," Brown said.
"There's always a mix ," he said, referring to the broad range of events, like hearing scientist Craig Venter discussing his ambitious plan to catalog unknown marine life and hearing teenage piano prodigy Jennifer Lin compose something onstage for the TED audience.
Under Anderson's nonprofit Sapling Foundation, the conference has taken a broader look at how all the brainpower it attracts could help make the world a better place.
"It felt right after Sept. 11. It became very right and natural that everyone try to figure out their priorities," Anderson said. "What can we do with our skills and talents that would be fun? What are some cool ideas for tackling our problems?"
Anderson's cool idea is the TED Prize, to be awarded for the first time this week. A secret panel of judges, including Anderson, sifted through nominations from TED participants and chose three winners, each of whom gets $100,000 to spend as he or she wishes.
The winners also were granted three wishes, which they will reveal at TED, in hopes that attendees will help make them come true. The prize money comes from TED, which will turn a $1.5 million profit this year.
This year's winners are rock star Bono, who will appear via satellite; Toronto photographer Edward Burtynsky, who documents the impact humans have on the planet; and inventor Robert Fischell, whose work includes a satellite system that was a key precursor to the Global Positioning System, an implantable cardiac defibrillator and an implantable insulin pump.
"The TED Prize is a bet on the capability of the TED community," Anderson said. "If you find a way of inspiring 900 people with the skills, talents, energy and resources of the TED crowd, something magical could result."
Anderson has heard some of the wishes and says they're "big, bold, creative wishes."
Anderson is also taking TED international, with the first TED Global set for May in England.
Meanwhile, Wurman, his predecessor, is ready to get back into the conference game now that the three-year noncompetition clause has expired.
Next February he will sponsor The Entertainment Gathering, a Los Angeles celebration of the wonders of American media.
Wurman hasn't been involved in TED since he sold it. "There hasn't been a very large welcome mat out," he said. "That's not criticism. It's just a fact. I have enough places to go."
He said he's heard Anderson is doing a good job, and Anderson laughed when asked about Wurman. "He's quirky, he's brilliant, he can be difficult," Anderson said.
"Anyone who does business with Richard always has a rich story to be told. As much as I love Richard, I would love him to be involved in TED when the time's right."
Thanks hotpepper!
