When organizing the first TED conference, creator Richard Saul Wurman stated clearly how he wanted to define the conference: “I just wanted to throw the world’s best dinner party.”
His idea was to invite the best, the brightest people to come and give the greatest talk of their lives in less than 18 minutes, and he accomplished it perfectly.
The story of TDX talk
This global community quickly evolved into a series of conferences, TEDx events, and TED live conferences which you are able to attend – but you have to be aware that the line for tickets is always extremely long.
Each TED talk is recorded and transformed into a video that is available to basically everyone who visits TED’s official web site. The TED community – non-profit organizations, bloggers, news media, and grassroots – are encouraged to like and share TED Talks through social media and to embed individual talks in contextually relevant ways on non-commercial websites using the embed code on TED.com. In the last six years, those videos have become the most popular lecture series online.
Videos shouldn’t be longer than 18 minutes
People say that TED talks are spectacles for smart people. Revealing knowledge about various topics, through the eyes of different intellectuals, encourages you to watch and listen. What is more, the majority of them make you think. The story behind almost single one of them makes it appealing, and you often find yourself listening to a topic you would probably never have considered to be interesting.
Another positive part is that those videos shouldn’t be longer than 18 minutes, so you usually have enough time to watch one in one sitting, without pressure. You are learning by watching, enjoying by listening, and empathizing without actually noticing it.
Most watched TED talks
These talks inspire a tremendous amount of engagement from the community, and each one provides valuable insight. The most successful topics are those which each individual can relate to such as happiness, knowledge, ethics, food, and psychology. But which ideas have had the most widespread impact? The most-watched talks as of December 2013 were:
- Sir Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity
- Jill Bolte Taylor has a stroke of insight
- Simon Sinekdefines how great leaders inspire action
- Brene Browntalks about the power of vulnerability
- Amy Cuddy speaks on how your body language shapes who you are
- Pranav Mistryreveals the thrilling potential of the Sixth Sense
- Tony Robbinsasks why we do what we do
- David Gallo represents underwater astonishments
- Mary Roach reveals 10 things you didn’t know about orgasm
- Daniel Pink expresses the surprising science of motivation
- Pattie Maesand Pranav Mistry meet and demo the Sixth Sense
- Dan Gilbertasks: Why are we happy?
- Hans Roslingshows the best stats you’ve ever seen
- Elizabeth Gilberttells you about nurturing your creative genius
- Steve Jobs suggests how to live before you die
- Susan Cain shares the power of introverts
- Keith Barrydoes brain magic
- David Blaine reveals how he held his breath for 17 minutes
- Pamela Meyer proposes how to spot a liar
- Arthur Benjamin does mathemagic
If the list is still not long enough for you, you should watch three of the most popular talks in 2014, delivered by Angela Lee Duckworth who revealed The key to success, by David Pogue who gave us 10 top time-saving tech tips, and by Jane McGonigal who discussed The game that can give you 10 extra years of life.
Once you start visiting TED’s web page you will keep coming back
Special TEDx Talks, when local speakers present their ideas to local audiences, are happening all over the world daily, usually at an average rate of eight per day. These events have transformed the usual space of delivering speeches intended for a global audience with locations as far flung as Mount Everest and the Sydney Opera House; but, beyond that, these events have transformed individuals and their communities.
TED organizers come from different places and backgrounds, and with different views of the world, but they have one thing in common: a passion for big ideas.
Each event adds a thread to a global story year in the making, with thousands of passionate people behind it who are deep believers in the power of ideas. And once you start visiting TED’s web page you will keep coming back because it makes learning more fun and freer than it’s ever been before.
More about inspiring stories you can learn here.
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