Dispatches from TEDGlobal in Oxford

Posted by: Andy Reinhardt on July 22, 2009

I’m privileged to attend the TEDGlobal conference in Oxford, England. It’s my first-ever TED (I’m what the cognoscenti call a TED virgin) but I’m already starting to get the drift.

For those of you not familiar with TED—the U.S. conferences have been running for years, but this is only the second iteration of TEDGlobal in Europe—it’s a far cry from the typical trade show or tech industry confab. The name originally stood for Technology, Entertainment, and Design, and to this day TED maintains strong roots in all three topics. But it’s not just an endless string of demos and self-promotional presentations: TED is more about engaging its diverse and remarkably brainy audience (and giving them ample opportunities to engage with each other) on a range of thought-provoking topics. The agenda is as much about socio-cultural and even political issues as it is about technology. And the speakers run the gamut from astronomers, lawyers, and advertising execs to musicians, writers, and politicians.

The first official day of the conference, on July 21, ran only for the afternoon but managed to pack in a number of surprises, including the unannounced appearance of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown (see a video of his presentation here) who made an impassioned plea to harness technology and beef up international organizations to solve global problems.

Also featured the first day: writer Alain de Botton, who gave a charming and engaging talk about success and failure, including the memorable observation that while today’s meritocratic society allows ambitious people to create their own destiny in ways never possible before, it also consigns “unfortunates” to the category of losers.

Astronomer Andrea Ghez talked about black holes. Nano-scale sculptor Williard Wigan showed the amazing tiny works of art he makes that fit on the head of a pin or inside the eye of a needle. And stunt man Steve Truglia pitched his scheme to jump to the earth from the edge of space, at 120,000 feet. All in all, an esoteric and wild mix.

According to some old TED hands, the quality of the first day talks may not have been up to the standards of previous events. They certainly struck me as a bit patchy—and perhaps not as revelatory as I had hoped. But we’re part of the way through the morning sessions of the second day, and I’m finding more of interest. I’ll be back later with more details, when I can find a brief gap in the relentless schedule.