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Many people think TED is someone's name. Actually, it's the first letters of three English words. Technology, Entertainment, Design. In 1984, two Americans used those three words to launch a conference. The first one didn't go well; it lost money. Six years later it came back, and it has run every year since.
In 2001, a man named Chris Anderson took it over. The topics grew from those three to almost anything. The real turning point came in 2006. They put the talks online for free, for anyone to watch. They spread fast. TED went from a conference to a place where ideas spread. Its slogan says it: ideas worth spreading.
Every talk is at most 18 minutes. Why eighteen? Anderson's answer: short enough to keep people listening, long enough to say something that matters. At first the limit was 15 minutes, but people kept running over. Making it 18 was a way to be more precise.
On stage there's often just one person, a round red carpet, and one idea. Since 2009, people anywhere can run their own smaller TEDx events. Now there are more than 3,000 a year. The most-watched talk is from 2006. Ken Robinson asked: do schools kill creativity? On the TED website alone, it has been watched more than 80 million times.
So what TED really does comes down to one thing: in 18 minutes, help someone who never thought about it understand. Next time you want to explain something, ask yourself first: could I make it clear in 18 minutes?
TED began as a conference
and became a place where ideas spread:
one person, a red carpet, eighteen minutes.
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