I would like to share with you a platform that I have been using for some years now and am always surprised that nobody knows this platform when I ask: Do you know TED? The answer is always SURE THE TEDDY BEAR!
What is TED?
TED is a conference where several participants from all over the world can come and tell their stories. That’s all. Someone who has achieved something in life is invited there and that person can share his experience.
In the book TED Talks – The Art of Public Speaking by Chris Anderson , I learned that these conferences were all about technology, entertainment and design in the beginning. Hence the name. It was eventually taken over by Chris Anderson and he opened it up to everything. Everyone can share his idea.
My first TED talk
I still remember how it happened that I watched my first TED talk. I was still living alone and was having breakfast. At some point I googled for something and clicked on the link. The website opened and I listened to the man. It was Alan Eustace who talked about how he survived a free fall from the stratosphere.
His look and the way he reported his jump was not what I was used to, but his story was so blatant and heart-rending that I listened to the end.
Further talks
The website was incredibly easy to use and I could not believe anyone would offer such an easy-to-use website with such interesting articles for free to the whole world. I’ve been waiting for a pop-up all the time to show me the pricing. It did not come.
After that I downloaded the app to my phone and it worked without problems. That was the point where I started with the download of experiences. I have always been always with headphones and have listened to one experience after another.
The clientele
At some point came the moment where I wondered, what kind of people are in the audience? I’ve found that there are a lot of highly respected people such as Elon Musk (Tesla), Larry Page (Google), Jeff Bezos (Amazon), James Cameron (Titanic / Avatar) or Linus Torvalds (Linux) sitting and also own talks have certain topics.
After that, I also wanted to go there but unfortunately had to find that the prices are not appropriate for me. The TED Main Event is held in Sydney and a ticket costs between $ 5,000 to $ 250,000.
Separation by ethnicity and religion
That was again a point where I was amazed by TED Talks. It is decided in the talks neither ethnicity, nor religion or appearance. Everyone can share his story. It may happen that a woman wearing a headscarf tells how it is to wear a headscarf in America:
and then you continue to rush and see another woman in a headscarf talking about the impact of certain events on the brains of the children:
And when you see that even an African boy can get a voice and give a talk about his invention, which he has done to keep lions away from his village, you know that there are no limits at all here:
TEDx
This idea of the lectures arrived very well and thus TEDx was introduced. TEDx is the completely independent conference that everyone can organize themselves in their city. There are a lot of events that you can attend and they are all in one map. You can see this map here.
Conclusion
I think Chris Anderson has achieved something enviable with TED. To create such a beautiful platform where everyone can tell their idea and reach as many people regardless of their religion, education, race or other qualities.
I hope that I have opened a world with this post and I wish you all a lot of fun with the talks.
