TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian nonprofit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "Ideas Change Everything" (previously "Ideas Worth Spreading"). It was founded by Richard Saul Wurman and Harry Marks in February 1984 as a technology conference, in which Mickey Schulhof gave a demo of the compact disc that was invented in October 1982. Its main conference has been held annually since 1990. It covers many topics—from science to literature to business to global issues—in more than 100 languages.
TED's early emphasis was on technology and design, consistent with its Silicon Valley origins. It later broadened to include 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 has been held annually in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, at the Vancouver Convention Centre since 2014. The first conferences from 1984 (TED1) through 2008 (TED2008) were held at the Monterey Conference Center in Monterey, California. From 2009 to 2014, it 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 in 2021 with TEDMonterey. The talks address a wide range of topics within the research and practice of science and culture, often through storytelling.
TED conferences are invitation-only events with an admission of $6,000.
Since June 2006, TED Talks had been offered for online streaming. By June 2011, TED Talks' combined viewing figures surpassed 500 million.
History 1984–1999: Founding and early years
TED was conceived in 1984 by Richard Saul Wurman, FAIA '76, and co-founded by Emmy-winning broadcast and graphic designer Harry Marks and CBS president emeritus Frank Stanton. The conference 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 the mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot and others such as Nicholas Negroponte and Stewart Brand. The event was financially unsuccessful; six years elapsed before a second conference was organized.
TED2 was held at the same 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 moved to Long Beach, California, due to a substantial increase in the number of those attending. Speakers were initially drawn from the fields of expertise behind the acronym TED; but during the 1990s, 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 for $14 million ($12 million in cash and $2 million in stocks). 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.
In 2012, TED community director Tom Rielly helped the producers of Prometheus gain approval for the use of the TED brand in the promotional short film TED 2023, designed by Rielly with Ridley Scott and Damon Lindelof, directed by Luke Scott, and starring Guy Pearce as Peter Weyland, who in the film speaks at a fictional TED conference at Wembley Stadium in the then-future of 2023; on the film's release, Rielly noted that the association had generated millions of unique visits to the TED website.
In 2014, the conference was moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
TED is currently funded by various revenue streams, including attendance fees, corporate sponsorships, foundation support, licensing fees, and book sales. Sponsors do not participate in the event's creation and do not present on the main stage.
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."
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.
In 2025, it was announced that the annual conference would move to San Diego, California, beginning in 2027.
TED Prize The TED Prize was introduced in 2005. Until 2010, $100,000 was given annually to three individuals with a "wish to change the world". Each winner unveiled their wish at the main annual conference. The winners from this period are as follows:
2005: Bono, Edward Burtynsky, Robert Fischell 2006: Larry Brilliant, Jehane Noujaim, Cameron Sinclair 2007: Bill Clinton, Edward O. Wilson, James Nachtwey 2008: Dave Eggers, Neil Turok, Karen Armstrong 2009: Sylvia Earle, Jill Tarter, José Antonio Abreu
Since 2010, a single winner has been chosen to ensure that TED can maximize its efforts in achieving the winner's wish. In 2012, the prize was not awarded to a person, but to a concept connected to the current global phenomenon of increasing urbanization. In 2013, the prize amount was increased to $1 million. The winners from this period are as follows:
2010: Jamie Oliver 2011: JR 2012: City 2.0 2013: Sugata Mitra 2014: Charmian Gooch 2015: David Isay 2016: Sarah Parcak 2017: Raj Panjabi
TED Conference commissioned New York artist Tom Shannon to create a prize sculpture for all TED Prize winners. It consists of an aluminum sphere magnetically levitated above a walnut disc. As of 2018, the prize has been recast as The Audacious Project.
TED.com In 2005, Chris Anderson hired June Cohen as Director of TED Media. In June 2006, after Cohen's idea of a TV show based on TED lectures was rejected by several networks, a selection of talks that had received highest audience ratings was posted on the websites of TED, YouTube and iTunes under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0. Only a handful of talks was initially posted to see if there was an audience for them. In January of the following year, the number of talks on the sites had grown to 44, and they had been viewed more than three million times. On the basis of that success, the organization pumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into its video production operations and the development of a website to feature about 100 of the talks.
In April 2007, the new TED.com was launched, developed by New York and San Francisco-based design company Method. The website has won many prizes, including seven Webby Awards, iTunes' "Best Podcast of the Year" (2006–2010); the Communication Arts Interactive Award for Information Design (2007); the OMMA Award for Video Sharing, the Web Visionary Award for Technical Achievement, and The One Show Interactive Bronze Award (2008); the AIGA Annual Design Competition (2009); and a Peabody Award (2012).
In January 2009, TED videos had been viewed 50 million times. In June 2011, they reached 500 million views.
In March 2012, Netflix announced a deal to stream an initial series of 16 two-hour collections of TED Talks on similar subjects. It was made available to subscribers in the United States, Canada, Latin America, the United Kingdom, and Ireland. Hosted by Jami Floyd, TED Talks NYC debuted on NYC Life on March 21, 2012.
Related projects and events TED conferences
DateConferenceThemeLocationNotable speakersApril 15–19, 2024TED 2024The Brave and The BrilliantVancouver, British ColumbiaSam Altman, Eric Schmidt, Palmer Luckey, Steven Pinker, Richard DawkinsApril 17–21, 2023TED 2023PossibilityVancouver, British ColumbiaApril 10–14, 2022TED 2022A New EraVancouver, British ColumbiaElon Musk, Garry Kasparov, Al Gore, Alexis Nikole Nelson, Bryce Dallas Howard, Allyson FelixOctober 12–15, 2021TED Countdown SummitEdinburgh, ScotlandOctober 10, 2020TED Countdown 2020OnlineMay 18, 2020 − July 10, 2020TED 2020UnchartedOnline @ TED.comJuly 21–25, 2019TEDSummit 2019A Community Beyond BordersEdinburgh, ScotlandNicola Sturgeon, Carole CadwalladrApril 15–19, 2019TED 2019Bigger than usVancouver, British ColumbiaAmerica FerreraNovember 28–30, 2018TEDWomen 2018Showing upPalm Springs, CaliforniaStacey Abrams, Pat Mitchell, Cecille RichardsNovember 14–16, 2018TEDMED 2018Chaos+ClarityPalm Springs, CaliforniaApril 10–14, 2018TED 2018The Age of AmazementVancouver, British ColumbiaNovember 1–3, 2017TEDWomen 2017BridgesNew Orleans, LouisianaAugust 27–30, 2017TEDGlobal 2017Builders. Truth-tellers. Catalysts.Arusha, TanzaniaApril 24–28, 2017TED 2017The Future YouVancouver, British ColumbiaRobert SapolskyNovember 14, 2016TEDYouth 2016Made in the FutureBrooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New YorkOctober 26–28, 2016TEDWomen 2016It's about time.San Francisco, CaliforniaJune 26–30, 2016TEDSummit 2016Aim higher. Together.Banff, AlbertaFebruary 15–19, 2016TED 2016DreamVancouver, British ColumbiaNovember 14, 2015TEDYouth 2015Made in the FutureBrooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New YorkNovember 1–6, 2015TED Talks LiveSix nights of talks on BroadwayTown Hall Theatre, New York, New YorkMay 27–29, 2015TEDWomen 2015MomentumMonterey, CaliforniaMarch 16–20, 2015TED 2015Truth and DareVancouver, British ColumbiaBill GatesMarch 16–20, 2015TEDActive 2015Truth and DareWhistler, British ColumbiaNovember 15, 2014TEDYouth 2014Worlds ImaginedBrooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New YorkOctober 6–10, 2014TEDGlobal 2014South!Rio de Janeiro, BrazilAlejandro Aravena, Glenn Greenwald, Vik Muniz, Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, Marie Arana, Grimanesa AmorósMarch 17–21, 2014TED 2014The Next ChapterVancouver, British ColumbiaMarch 17–21, 2014TEDActive 2014The Next ChapterWhistler, British ColumbiaFebruary 25 – March 1, 2013TED 2013The Young. The Wise. The Undiscovered.Long Beach, CaliforniaMiranda Wang, Jeanny YaoFebruary 25 – March 1, 2013TEDActive 2013The Young. The Wise. The Undiscovered.Palm Springs, CaliforniaFebruary 27 – March 2, 2012TED 2012Full SpectrumLong Beach, CaliforniaFebruary 27 – March 2, 2012TEDActive 2012Full SpectrumPalm Springs, California
TEDGlobal
In 2005, under Anderson's supervision, a more internationally oriented sister conference was added, under the name TEDGlobal. It was held, in chronological order: in Oxford, UK (2005), in Arusha, Tanzania (2007, titled TEDAfrica), in Oxford again (2009 and 2010), and in Edinburgh, UK (2011, 2012, and 2013). In 2014, it was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Additionally, there was TED India, in Mysore (2009) and TEDGlobal London in London (2015). TEDGlobal 2017 was held again in Arusha, Tanzania, and it was curated and hosted by Emeka Okafor.
TED's European director (and curator of TEDGlobal) is Swiss-born Bruno Giussani.
The TED 2011 conference, The Rediscovery of Wonder, was held in Long Beach, California, US, from February 28 to March 4, 2011. The TED conference has a companion conference, TEDGlobal, held in the UK each summer. The 2009 TEDGlobal, The Substance of Things Not Seen, was held in Oxford, July 21–24, 2009. 2010's TEDGlobal (again in Oxford) was themed And Now The Good News; in 2011 the conference moved to a new home in Edinburgh and was held July 12–15 with the theme The Stuff Of Life. The 2012 TEDGlobal conference Radical Openness was held in Edinburgh, June 25–29.
TEDx