I heart TED

I ‘m in love. I am in love with TED. Together we have trotted through history, around the globe and back again. We’ve learned about birds and bees, embraced love letters and robotics, philosophy, creativity, and philanthropy. TED is captivating, entertaining, inspiring, creative, challenging and imaginative. TED can be poignant and funny at the same time, or at different times. TED is my secret love. Five minutes or five hours, I can always find time for TED.

Do you know TED? No? Allow me to introduce you. I don’t mind sharing. There’s plenty of TED to go around.

TED is a non-profit organization that presents or sponsors conferences around the globe, operating under the slogan of “ideas worth spreading”. The conferences are a series of curated short talks, most under 20 minutes, on every imaginable subject.  TED Talks began in 1984 as a one-off, invitation only, conference converging the concepts of technology, entertainment and design (TED). Headline presentations included a demonstration of the compact disc, the ebook and 3D graphics from LucasFilms. A lot has transpired between then and now. TED, and its various offspring, have hosted over 4,000 conferences in 120 countries and more than 2,400 of these fabulous talks are available as free videos online at www.TED.com .

Who has given these illustrious talks at TED? Well here’s just a small sampling: James Cameron, Bill Gates, Elizabeth Gilbert, Brené Brown, Bono, Jamie Oliver, Jane Goodall, George Takei, Tony Robbins, and the list goes on.

Still not convinced. Check out what Arianna Huffington thinks about sleep.

Need more? Check out this amazing woman – Dame Stephanie Shirley.
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You’re welcome.

Do you <3 TED? What’s your favourite TED Talk?

Photo credit: jurvetson via VisualHunt / CC BY