Hasta La Ideas

When a four-day conference is structured around a dozen nouns—from action and boldness to simplicity and wisdom—you know it’s going to be good. Such is TED2010, the annual conference that began as a technology, entertainment, and design (hence, TED) confab and 25 years later has become a World Economic Forum of the mind. Creativity is king and talks are 18-minute revelations. The theme of this year’s conference, which kicks off on February 9 in Long Beach, California, is “What the world needs now”—not so much love, sweet love, as “core ideas that will drive our quest for a better future.” Thus, there are twelve main sessions, each devoted to one big idea. And, oh what a speaker line-up!

Typographic savant Marian Bantjes will speak during the Imagination session, which comes just after the one on Boldness headlined by Bill Gates. There is also time for Play, in a session featuring multi-tasking design mind David Rockwell, comedian Sarah Silverman, playwright Eve Ensler, and songstress Natalie Merchant. And that’s just Friday! Also taking the TED stage in February will be David Byrne (Invention), Blue Hill chef Dan Barber (Discovery), interface designer John Underkoffler (Breakthrough), and writer/activist Elie Wiesel (Wisdom), whose talk with precede that of onlne performance artist Ze Frank. Worlds collide at the TED Conference. We’ll let Bantjes deliver the bad news: “Can you attend? Well, no….unfortunately,” she wrote recently on her website. “Even at $6,000 a pop, it’s been sold out for months! But in about six months, I think, they’ll post videos from the conference.” In the meantime, get inspired by 587 past TED talks, available for viewing here.

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