Chris Anderson and the other folks behind TED (which stands for technology, entertainment, and design) have managed to maintain something few conference organizers can: exclusivity.

TED's invitation-only annual gathering, which starts Wednesday in Monterey, California, brings together an eclectic mix of academics, scientists, entrepreneurs, moguls, environmentalists, philosophers, and just a dash of Hollywood.

It's been called the "Davos for optimists," a reference to the glittery global gathering in that Swiss ski resort by the World Economic Forum. Like Davos, TED has been called a place to "meet people who are smarter than you are," and "something blending a graduate seminar and a revival meeting."

In short, it's an intimate conference in hot demand with limited seating. Only 1,100 guests will receive badges at the door in Monterey in exchange for their $6,000 fee; fewer than half of them will be able to see the speakers live in the main auditorium—the rest will watch a simulcast from another room. Another 300 guests paying $3,000 each will watch the broadcast live from Aspen, Colorado.

The annual TED conference has evolved from a tech-fest when it started in 1984 into an idea lab for solving the world's social and environmental ills today. The four-day gathering is meant to inspire its attendees to go out into the world and proselytize change.

Judging by this year's theme, they won't walk away disappointed. Its speakers will aim to answer "The Big Questions." These would include everything from the profound "Who Are We?" to the provocative "Will Evil Prevail?" to the more light-hearted "Is Beauty Truth?"

Each session features four or five speakers in short consecutive segments. TED invited an anthropologist, a paleoanthropologist, an artist, and a neuroanatomist to try to solve the "Who Are We?" riddle.

Once the audience has absorbed that question, they will move on to the equally perplexing "What Is Our Place in the Universe?" The session includes a guitarist, a spiritual teacher, and actor John Hodgman, a self-proclaimed "expert" who is better known as the PC character in Apple's Macintosh commercials.

The well-known geneticist Craig Venter will open the session on "What Is Life?" on Thursday. A psychologist and the historian Doris Kearns Goodwin will follow him, as will a DNA origamist—someone who weaves DNA molecules into nanometer-scale patterns using a process that could be used to create molecular-scale computers, drug delivery systems, or chemical factories.

The fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi is among the speakers who will tackle the subject of beauty.