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Thinking Big
by Caitlin Liu
Feb 22 2008
Feb 22 2008
Chris Anderson came to TED as a participant. He liked it so much that he bought it. Now he wants to take it to the world.
Richard Saul Wurman anticipated the convergence of technology, entertainment, and design, and decided to have fun with it. Read More
A TED Timeline
Some of the most important events at TED, including some that may surprise you. See All Video & Multimedia
TED — the annual conference of tech gurus, entertainment C.E.O.'s, artists, scientists, philosophers, and other ideamongers — was at a crossroads.
Sold out every year, the gathering was ripe for a larger audience than it could accommodate in its Monterey, California, home. After plans for a TV show fizzled in 2005, a TED staffer came up with a proposal: Why not put conference footage on the Internet?
“The first instinct of a lot of people was, 'Don't be silly! TED's really expensive. People are paying a lot of money to come for this content,'” says Chris Anderson, host of the conference. “Most people thought we would be giving away the crown jewels.”
Anderson, whose charitable foundation owns the conference, considered the risks. Would people continue paying thousands of dollars to listen to and talk with Al Gore, Bono, Richard Branson and other innovators in person if they could watch for free over the Web?
There were also worries about tarnishing TED's image — an aura of exclusivity and being ahead of the curve were part of its appeal.
The conference was where Wired magazine was born, among the first places to preview breakthroughs of spectacular cool, like the Macintosh and the Segway transporter. Would billionaire venture capitalists still clamor to be part of the TED audience if they knew that librarians in Tucson could tap into the same experience?
But Anderson — an entrepreneur who made his fortune from a media empire that included the magazine Business 2.0 — believed the new economy would reward openness. Providing free content of substance to the public, he says, also fit with TED's philanthropic mission of spreading ideas to change the world.
Since launching in June 2006, TEDTalks videos have been viewed nearly 30 million times by more than 10 million people. And instead of cannibalizing ticket sales, the online giveaway only generated greater buzz and demand for the conference.
This year's conference, which is sponsored in part by Condé Nast Portfolio, runs from February 27 to March 1. The event sold out 10 days after its $6,000 tickets went on sale a year ago.
Anderson, 51, was born in Pakistan to British missionaries. After studying philosophy at Oxford, he pondered teaching as a career. Instead, he jumped into journalism and publishing, he says, because of their potential to influence many more people.
In the late 1990s, he attended his first TED conference, loved its intellectual vitality and felt he had “come home.”
When he founded TED in 1984, architect and author Richard Saul Wurman focused on technology, entertainment, and design — thus the acronym that became the conference's name.
But over the years TED grew to include other topics. Under Anderson, whose Sapling Foundation bought the meeting in 2001, the speaker roster became more international and focused on social justice.
In 2005 Anderson began TEDGlobal, which hosts sister events overseas. He also created the TED Prize, which awards winners $100,000 and the opportunity to wish for something for the good of the world. This year's winners are author Dave Eggers, cosmologist Neil Turok and religion historian Karen Armstrong.
The award is Anderson's way to encourage notable people to set “outrageously exciting goals” and rally TED's community to help make their wishes come true, says Jay Walker, founder of Priceline and part of an advisory group Anderson formed for the prize.
Past prizes have spawned an international film festival and spurred efforts to create a national health care system in Rwanda.
Anderson “had made plenty of money, but he always had a sense of purpose — 'What can I do to make this world a better place,'” says Cyndi Stivers, founding editor of Time Out New York who met him 15 years ago through publishing circles.
A conference regular long before Anderson got involved, Stivers credits him with making TED accessible to more people. “It used to be a very exclusive club almost,” she says. “And now it's facing outward, engaging the world.”
Sold out every year, the gathering was ripe for a larger audience than it could accommodate in its Monterey, California, home. After plans for a TV show fizzled in 2005, a TED staffer came up with a proposal: Why not put conference footage on the Internet?
“The first instinct of a lot of people was, 'Don't be silly! TED's really expensive. People are paying a lot of money to come for this content,'” says Chris Anderson, host of the conference. “Most people thought we would be giving away the crown jewels.”
Anderson, whose charitable foundation owns the conference, considered the risks. Would people continue paying thousands of dollars to listen to and talk with Al Gore, Bono, Richard Branson and other innovators in person if they could watch for free over the Web?
There were also worries about tarnishing TED's image — an aura of exclusivity and being ahead of the curve were part of its appeal.
The conference was where Wired magazine was born, among the first places to preview breakthroughs of spectacular cool, like the Macintosh and the Segway transporter. Would billionaire venture capitalists still clamor to be part of the TED audience if they knew that librarians in Tucson could tap into the same experience?
But Anderson — an entrepreneur who made his fortune from a media empire that included the magazine Business 2.0 — believed the new economy would reward openness. Providing free content of substance to the public, he says, also fit with TED's philanthropic mission of spreading ideas to change the world.
Since launching in June 2006, TEDTalks videos have been viewed nearly 30 million times by more than 10 million people. And instead of cannibalizing ticket sales, the online giveaway only generated greater buzz and demand for the conference.
This year's conference, which is sponsored in part by Condé Nast Portfolio, runs from February 27 to March 1. The event sold out 10 days after its $6,000 tickets went on sale a year ago.
Anderson, 51, was born in Pakistan to British missionaries. After studying philosophy at Oxford, he pondered teaching as a career. Instead, he jumped into journalism and publishing, he says, because of their potential to influence many more people.
In the late 1990s, he attended his first TED conference, loved its intellectual vitality and felt he had “come home.”
When he founded TED in 1984, architect and author Richard Saul Wurman focused on technology, entertainment, and design — thus the acronym that became the conference's name.
But over the years TED grew to include other topics. Under Anderson, whose Sapling Foundation bought the meeting in 2001, the speaker roster became more international and focused on social justice.
In 2005 Anderson began TEDGlobal, which hosts sister events overseas. He also created the TED Prize, which awards winners $100,000 and the opportunity to wish for something for the good of the world. This year's winners are author Dave Eggers, cosmologist Neil Turok and religion historian Karen Armstrong.
The award is Anderson's way to encourage notable people to set “outrageously exciting goals” and rally TED's community to help make their wishes come true, says Jay Walker, founder of Priceline and part of an advisory group Anderson formed for the prize.
Past prizes have spawned an international film festival and spurred efforts to create a national health care system in Rwanda.
Anderson “had made plenty of money, but he always had a sense of purpose — 'What can I do to make this world a better place,'” says Cyndi Stivers, founding editor of Time Out New York who met him 15 years ago through publishing circles.
A conference regular long before Anderson got involved, Stivers credits him with making TED accessible to more people. “It used to be a very exclusive club almost,” she says. “And now it's facing outward, engaging the world.”
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