Back in 1984, the TED Conference launched as a non-profit aimed at bringing the most brilliant minds in technology, entertainment and design (hence the ackronym name) together to talk about the cutting edge.
Today, TED has become one of the best sources for emerging theory and its practical application online. TED conferences are happening all over the world and each one is all about the propagation of inspiring new ideas. The organization now provides a free lecture series delivered in the form of short videos. TED posts new video content featuring “ideas worth spreading,” the organization’s slogan, every weekday on their blog.
Recent “TED talks” have been delivered by people like marine toxicologist Susan Shaw, who talked about the effects of the BP oil spill on marine wildlife, and Dimitar Sasselov, who explained how his research group has been able to identify 700+ potentially Earth-like planets.
With the popularity of TED arose a spin-off known as TEDx, where the “x” signifies that the event is independently organized outside of TED, but is dedicated to creating a TED-like experience.
Tomorrow, a TEDx conference of local thinkers — business people, journalists and scientists — will be held at the Seaport World Trade Center in the Innovation District. Twenty-seven presentations will be given, each 20 minutes long. All of them are expected to reveal some of the most interesting and enlightening ideas and projects currently underway in Greater Boston.
BostInnovation will be on-hand, live Tweeting from the event, and providing coverage for those looking to learn about the topics covered at TEDx Boston in a nutshell. Needless to say, we’re really excited to be a part of the sold-out crowd at TEDx Boston. Here are a few presentations we’re most looking forward to:
Bill Warner — Building a Startup from the Heart
The President of Warner Research and Founder of the Anything Goes Accelerator Lab is expected to detail his theories on the personality-centric synergies that new companies should pursue in order to find faster traction and improve the likelihood of success. Additionally, he’ll likely talk about how internal story telling and status reporting can help the members of a founding team ensure initial company goals are met.
John Harthorn — Catalyzing a Startup Renaissance in Boston
The Founder and CEO of MassChallenge is expected to talk about how the locally-based global startup competition he coordinates is bringing a new sense of self-awareness to the local startup community in its first year. We’re expecting him to talk about how MassChallenge has taken steps to educate the startup community about potential early-stage pitfalls in an effort to get some 400+ participating companies over the initial hump of launching a business.
Dave McLaughlin — Connector Experiments
The Executive Director of Boston World Partnerships is expected to talk about how his organization is effectively crowd-sourcing economic growth for the City of Boston. We can’t wait to hear more about how this organization has rethought corporate networking in an effort to provide value to its business partners as part of a system that is helping Boston not only sustain economic activity in the city during the Recession, but actually generate new business and growth.
Scott Kirsner — What We Need is a Cultural Revolution
The tech blogger for The Boston Globe is expected to talk about the lack of connectivity between businesses in Greater Boston and the students who come here to be educated at some of the most prestigious colleges and universities in the world. Boston’s student population is arguably its most valuable resource to the future of Boston’s economic growth, and this is a problem we at BostInnovation are working to provide solutions to as well, by way of our coming Campus Connect events series.
Conor Sullivan — The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
The Founder and CEO of Localocracy is expected to talk about how the protests and open political conversations of former generations haven’t disappeared, as has been posited by many modern thinkers and journalists. It’s simply been transported to new forums on the Internet. We’re looking forward to hearing his theories about how political conversations in social media can better impact governments being discussed online.
Seth Priebatsch — Building a Game Layer on Top of the World
The Founder and CEO of Cambridge-based SCVNGR is expected to detail how his mobile company is increasing virtual engagement with local businesses while users are actually at those locations. He’ll likely explain how Boston’s own geo-location game is setting itself apart from other geo-location games like Foursquare by allowing much greater interactivity between merchants and users.
Look for more on tomorrow’s TEDx event right here on BostInnovation. If you wanted to attend but didn’t get a ticket, be sure to tune into the live streaming video the conference is providing virtual attendees.
What are you looking forward to at TEDx Boston? Will you be tuning in or attending in-person? What should BostInnovation focus our coverage on? Let us know in the comments section below.
To learn more about TED and TEDx, be sure to follow @TEDtalks and @TEDnews on Twitter, and be sure to check out the TED blog for daily video content and regular updates about the organization.
Tags: TEDx
