"If I died tomorrow, I would feel fulfilled." That's what one TEDster said to me during the beach barbecue after the close of the conference yesterday afternoon.

It was an especially bittersweet goodbye this year, because longtime attendees were also bidding adieu to their memories of Monterey, which has been hosting the conference since its start in 1984. Next year, TED 2009 will move into bigger facilities down the coast in Long Beach.

For people who haven't been to TED, it must seem odd to imagine that a four-day conference can have such an effect on nearly everyone who attends it. I was a TED virgin (as they are affectionately called) before last week, and now I'm feeling the residual impact.

TED speakers are a diverse bunch--anthropologists, scientists, scholars, comedians, artists, and perhaps one too many physicists for my taste. They each bring to the stage their knowledge of a different corner of our universe. And, hopefully with a bit of humor and without a written script, they illuminate the audience on that small slice of the world in about 18 minutes time.

I consistently found myself surprised by what piqued my interest most. I'm ready to buy my first classical music CD after the boundlessly energetic Benjamin Zander brought the audience to tears with a Chopin piece before bringing it to its feet while belting out the Ode to Joy. Only at TED will you find Al Gore, Cameron Diaz, and Jeff Bezos singing Beethoven together. And in German, no less! Zander is the longtime conductor of the Boston Philharmonic, and I would argue that the world needs more of him.

I'm ready to follow Paul Collier on his quest to lift the billion people at the bottom of the world's economic ladder out of poverty. The economist and author of the Bottom Billion made one of the most compelling talks in my opinion simply because he offered tangible solutions to the problem at hand.

Collier makes the case that trade policy and democratic elections are not enough to make the difference between success and failure in a struggling nation. The proper checks and balances must be in place. He argues for an international set of standards to help countries harness the revenues from the natural resources they have to offer. In order for a country to help itself, it needs a "critical mass of informed citizens."

Perhaps no one knows this better than former vice president Al Gore. His Inconvenient Truth tour helped him understand that education is only the first step at solving a problem of the magnitude of global warming.

His award winning movie inspired plenty of people to replace their light bulbs, clean the coils behind their refrigerators, and decline the plastic bag at the mini mart. That's admirable, Gore now says, but it's not enough.

"We need to change laws, not just light bulbs," the former vice president bellowed. He seemed even more passionate with this power point presentation than he did with his first.

If the environment is so important to Americans, Gore wonders, why is it not more important to our legislators? It's time to bring the dialogue to the forefront.

When asked what he thinks of the leading presidential candidates, he hedged a bit. It's clear that McCain, Clinton, and Obama each represent an improvement on environmental policy over the current administration, he said, before switching back to his message (something a politician never forgets, I guess).

Passionate and eloquently spoken, Gore seemed almost like the preacher at the pulpit before his congregation.

Hopefully that congregation will grow. While TED is an exclusive event that only the elite attend, the organization will make all of the talks from this past week available online within the next few months.

After attending my first TED, I'm not sure I can agree with my lunch companion yesterday. If I died tomorrow, I might just feel like I hadn't done enough. But at least I would die with Tchaikovsky in my ears.

By Megan Barnett