No, not the lame new TV show from ABC. I'm referring, of course, to the TED conference.
For those of you not familiar with TED, here's the description from their website:
"TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader.
The annual conference now brings together the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes)."
I went to my first TED in 1997, and I've been to one more since then. It's a mind-blowing experience: four days full of talks and demonstrations by people from all walks of life, all of whom are leaders in their fields. I wish I could go every year, but at $6000 per ticket, it's just not in the cards at the moment.
So you can understand my excitement when I received an email invitation to a new event right here in Los Angeles. The invitation described a half-day TED-like conference organized in cooperation with USC. I was ecstatic! Even a half-day of TED was better than nothing, and I would finally have the chance to show my guy what all the fuss is about.
Last Monday, I attended the event, called TEDxUSC. I had been looking forward to this conference for weeks, and when the big day finally arrived, I left the house uncharacteristically early and headed to USC with plenty of time to spare. We arrived 45 minutes before the event was due to begin, only to be told that there was no parking available anywhere on campus. The parking guard said something about the foolishness of inviting 1200 people to an event on the first day of school after spring break, when parking was already at a minimum. He directed us off campus to a nearby hotel, where we waited in a long line of people trying to park for the conference.
Not a good sign.
When the event finally started, the first half-hour was filled with people telling us why ideas are a good thing, and why USC is a great school. The USC Provost put up one slide, then read from a pre-written speech, a TED no-no. With a few exceptions, I found so much of what was presented was purely ideological. At the real TED, the talks are about concrete research into bringing ideas into the world. The speakers are the best in their fields and they're really getting something done, rather than just thinking about it.
I also took issue with the level of professionalism displayed by many of the speakers. At TED, it's clear that the speakers know they're speaking to people like Bill Gates and Bill Clinton. At USC, the speakers talked in a much less polished manner, as if they were giving a lecture to students. Not that there's anything inherently wrong with that; it's just not TED.
I won't go on and on about my negative impressions of this event, because it just makes me miss the real TED all the more. I guess if I could sum up the reason for my disappointment, I'd say it was the expectation created by the event name. I was expected a half-day TED. Instead, I got "TED for students." Not bad, but not the same thing at all.
When I returned home, I satisfied my TED craving by visiting the TED website. See, the cool thing about TED is not just the people and the ideas. It's that the whole point is to share those ideas with the world. The good folks who organize the conference are kind enough to put video of many of the talks on their website for anyone to enjoy, free of charge. I knew this, but for some reason I got out of the habit of watching them. Not anymore! My new resolution is to watch at least one TED talk at the beginning of each week, in the hope of inspiring the creativity and imagination that the real TED always provokes in me.
To whet your appetite, here's Elizabeth Gilbert (author of "Eat, Pray, Love") talking about creativity and the idea of the "creative genius."
So if you're feeling like you're stuck in a rut or you need a dose of inspiration, check out the talks at www.TED.com. Or if you can afford to, attend one of the conferences. It's an experience you won't forget.
