What is TED

“Mark your calendars, TEDx Tirana is happening in May 3.” You probably read or heard this line, especially if you already “liked” TEDx Tirana Official on Facebook. The organizing team of TEDx Tirana is currently going to different universities in the capital in order to explain the purpose of TED and the mission behind it. For those who do not have a chance to participate in one of those presentations, we decided to provide you here with some hints about TED and its history.

At the heart of TED is one line “Ideas worth spreading.” TED is a non-profit devoted to spreading valuable ideas in the form of short talks. TEDx, on the other side, was crated as an addition to TED in order to support initiatives by independent organizers who wanted to bring the TED experience closer to their communities. TED talks cover a great variety of topics from business to science to global and social issues.       

How did it all start? 

TED’s history dates back in 1984 when Richard Saul Wurman's observed the powerful combination of technology, entertainment and design. The first TED included a demo of the compact disc, the e-book and cutting-edge 3D graphics from Lucasfilm, while mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot demonstrated how to map coastlines using his developing theory of fractal geometry. Eventually TED Conference became an annual event in Monterey, California. At that time it served as a way to present inventions.

With time, TED experienced different changes that contributed to its growth in scope and content. Now TED and TEDx are considered as global communities that give an opportunity to people from all disciplines to share the ideas that are worth sharing, make them available to others and thus encourage and motivate discussion.

Hopefully, this helped you get a better understanding of TED. Next time we will share more about TEDx Tirana initiative. Until then, continue following the recent developments on the official Facebook page and …Happy Easter! J