 | Dear Global TED Community,
It's time to officially unveil an exciting program that has been running in beta the past few months.
Taking its cue from TED's tagline "ideas worth spreading," its goal is to allow passionate TEDsters everywhere to organize and advertise their own TED-like events -- in schools, universities, homes, workplaces and local theaters, using the brand TEDx.
The 'x' is a placeholder for "independently organized TED event" but also implies:
- TED exponential
- TED multiplied
- TED anywhere
Already more than 30 TEDx events have been held, includingTEDxTokyo, TEDxMoscow, TEDxParis, TEDxStockholm, TEDxSanFranciscoand -- just this weekend TEDxShanghai.
You can see pictures from these remarkable events on our TEDx Facebook page. Some 120 TEDx events are already planned for the coming months, and we expect many more.
TEDx events can last up to 1 day in length and are usually a combination of recorded TED talks and local live speakers. The events may not be used to promote commercial, religious or political agendas, and there are a few other simple rules that seek to ensure the experience is as TED-like as possible. However, our basic approach is to license the name in good faith for a one-time event, offer the best advice and tools that we can, and trust that the feedback we receive will give us the confidence to issue repeat licenses to the same organizer.
Audiences vary from just a few dozen people to hundreds. We encourage organizers to film any local speakers so that we can distribute the best of them at TED.com. So in addition to making a live experience available to many thousands of people around the world, we believe TEDx will also be a fantastic source of material for us to share with the world.
Indeed, today we have put up on the site our first ever TEDx talk, recorded at TEDxUSC, an event at the University of Southern California attended by a full house of more than 1100 students and professors. It's a terrific talk by biologist Jayne Pointer on her experience spending two years inside Biosphere 2. More to come!
The announcement is here. And you can explore the program for yourself, including a listing of upcoming events, on our website athttp://www.ted.com/tedx.
This is the beginning of a new chapter in TED's global journey -- we hope you can be part of it.
Best wishes,
Chris Anderson, TED Curator
Lara Stein, TEDx Director
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Dear Global TED Community,