Conferenza

TED Links

Thanks to Sam Perry for his cogent TED coverage. In the interest of completeness, Producer Chris Anderson forwarded a number of links.

TED 3 Themes - Doing Good and Doing Well to TED's Drumbeat!

Al Gore's coming back!

The man whose presentations served ostensibly as bookends for his first TED conference used the bully pulpit of the stage as TED2006's final speaker to announce he was coming back - no, not to politics, but to TED. Next year.

And that, coming from a man who likes to quip it's not been long since "I used to be the next President of the United States", says a lot about the transformation not only of the former vice president to the causes of averting global climate change and warning of media complacency, but also of TED.

TED2006 will likely go down as a remarkable year of consistent rhythm - a seamless alignment of the conference's original concentration on "Technology Entertainment Design" with TEDsteward Chris Anderson's vision of a world meeting social causes, often through inspired efforts of individuals commited to making a difference.

Not that Anderson will slow in his ambitious efforts to keep evolving the TEDconference and trying new ways to increase the velocity of productive communication between members of the TEDcommunity - whether through electronic introductions, the new TEDuniversity or various lunches, galas, beach parties and the two-years-running nighttime beachfront drumming session, this time sans Mickey Hart.

The three trends

0. Climate Change. Al Gore has been on a crusade for planetary preservation, warning influential audiences from Los Angeles to New York of the devastating potential impact of global warming. Allowed to break from TED's rigid 18-minute limit on talks, Gore was allocated a full one-hour Bonus Session on the opening day. With the disarming power of a sharp wit many had not expected and an up-to-date fact-filled slide show he made a compelling case global warming is fact, while doubt about is fiction. Afterwards, many who had doubted global warming were instead suggesting he needed a strong name for it - like global crisis or catastrophe. It's thus smart that Gore's releasing a film this spring, with "Pulp Fiction" producer Lawrence Bender who also attended TED, along with teams of surrogates to take the talk out to the country. Gore's was a sharp contrast to the presentation at TED2005 by Bjørn Lomborg, of skeptical environmentalist fame, which ranked climate degredation towards the bottom of priorites dubbed "bad projects" as decided by an assembly of experts.

0. Youth, Innovation and 'Upgrade Paradox". A variety of speakers addressed the issue of innovation, creativity, educating youth and our future. Sir Ken Robinson argued creativity is as important as literacy, and said we train it out of our youth. Zany astronomer Clifford Stoll suggested those who want to know the future 20 years out should ask kindergarten teachers, not technologists or futurists. Neil Gershenfeld of MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms described how his $20,000 mobile fab labs are used by young children, who are often bedazzled and spend hours learning to build complex technical systems. Finally, NYTimes tech columnist David Pogue described the "upgrade paradox" by which well-meaning, consenting (presumably) adults work to "improve" a piece of software so many times "you finally ruin it."

0. One Person Can. Over and over, speakers came to the stage demonstrating what a difference one person can make, whether it's the pioneering aviation of Burt Rutan, the video game worlds of David Perry, the natural animal-human interactions photographed by Gregory Colbert, or the aggregation of many individual testaments to violence of the Witness project as presented by musician Peter Gabriel.

The three themes - Ways to Get There

0. Doing Good and Doing Well. Green is the new... There was Al Gore, who professed that work to stem global overheating will create new jobs and businesses, and Bronx environmental activist Majora Carter, advocated ecological restoration projects, installing green roofs and improving traffic flows could create jobs ["Green is the new Black," is a phrase she uses to fight bad urban planning in predominantly African American neighborhoods]. Both argued economic incentives are crucial. Venture Capitalist Vinod Khosla cited similar success of economic incentives in Brazil, where adoption of "flex fuel" ethanol consuming cars has surged to 70% from 4%.

0. Ignore Assumptions. Live Forever (Nearly). Sprout New Limbs. In addition to the scorn of conventional education suppressing creativity, presenters argued we are often tied down by our own assumptions. Aubrey De Gray of Cambridge University suggests it is time to do away with ageing, which he says kills 90% of Americans and that extending lives of those destined to die of old age currently costs $200 billion in this country alone. It may seem unusual unless you, like De Gray, expect humans to naturally live to be 1,000. Similarly, regenerative medicine pioneer Dr. Alan Russell asked if a newt can regenerate a lost limb, why can't humans?

0. Look out for Patterns along the Way. Futurist Erik Peterson of the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies spoke of the challenge of population growth, governance, and information flows among the challenges we face over the next 20 years. Soon thereafter, Hans Rosling of Stockholm and Gapminder offers an engaging and graphic demonstration of the importance of drillng down into data and trends, and not overgeneralizing. Finally, Stanford biochemist Paul Berg, who shared the 1980 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, offered a fairly professorial walk through his recombinent DNA work. A couple of minutes from the end he launched into how identical twins' same genetic makeup can interact quite differently depending on the environment - worth a talk in its own right.

The three people

0. Larry Brilliant. Crowned as head of Google's foundation on the eve of TED, Brilliant energetically declared himself "the luckiest guy in the world" not for gaining that post, but for having seen the last case of smallpox in the world when he helped lead the eradication efforts. Furthermore, the maverick public health campaigner and former technology CEO aims to garner support with his $100,000 TEDprize to create a "Early Detect, Rapid Response" system that might stand a chance of halting avian flu before a pandemic spreads. He dubs this INSTEDD - International System for Total Early Disease Detection.

0. Cameron Sinclair & Jehane Noujaim. Yes, this will make it four people, yet Sinclair and Noujaim each deserve not only their individual $100,000 TEDprizes, but commendation for their efforts to raise the profile of innovative, humanitarian grassroots design and of independent, humanitarian films with their own famous TEDprize wishes.

0. Al Gore. Some Republican-leaning attendees spoke vehemently afterwards about how they felt two quips Gore made about the two presidents Bush, respectively, undermined his contention that Climate Change was an ethical, moral and spiritual issue, not a political one. Nonetheless, Gore won over many with a quick humor few saw in his public performances, his earnest climate campgain, and his frank assessment of his own political acumen. Asked by Anderson if he would run for president again, Gore noted that aside from election as vice president, he had run four times nationally and lost. To which one audience member blurted out "you won!" "Yeah, there is that," was Gore's reply.

The TED moment

TED has always been famous for its TED moments of amazing revelation.

This year, one such moment from off stage was recounted by Chris Herot, who found himself sitting on a bench in front of a tank of large fish during the TED gala evening at the Monterey Aquarium where he joined actress Meg Ryan and string theorist Brian Greene as they were deep in conversation around the origins of the universe and the concept of a larger purpose to existence. Also participating was Thomas Stat of the design consulting firm IDEO. "And in a moment that could only have occured at TED, not one but two people brought up what the Dalia Lama had told them about the topic in personal conversations they had had...," he reported.

The one complaint

TED2006 inserted itself smack in the middle of a broad trend of social entrepreneurship which has attracted innovators and philanthropists alike. Some long-time TEDsters still complain, as in recent years, there is 'less' of the T E and D in the TED experience, and that may very well be true.

Nonetheless, there was no lack of Technology at hand than engineer and pilot Burt Rutan or MIT D Lab head Amy Smith, or nor any shortage of intrinsic Entertainment and performance skill in Serena Huang, the 11-year-old violinist who also showed pluck at storytelling, saying she chose the instrument over the piano because with the violin she could hide it if she wanted to get out of practice, nor any shortage of Design sophistication with Joshua Prince-Ramus, architect of the Seattle Central Library.

Anderson's leadership is ambitious - he's announced a further TEDglobal conference in 2007 in Arusha, Tanzania, which some believe may require him to build a highway for participants to get there.

Yet, in a world of rapid change and literally dozens of fresh ideas for innovation and investment, an even greater challenge TED community faces is its impact outside the Monterey Conference Center and a four-day event. One can envision a far greater reach for TED, if it is able to preserve the intimacy of the event itself, while opening its flow of ideas more fully to the world. This could include greater public access outside even the amply-appointed simulcast room - which would also challenge the drumbeat of critics promoting open-source conferences.

Final thought

TED has resided for more than two decades among the pantheon on the top of the premier conferences, and deservedly so. Like any event or institution, conferences face a challenge of reinvention and remaining relevant. As Shel Israel noted in his interview with Tom Abate in last week's San Francisco Chronicle, TED's rhythm is beating to a younger and more hurried drumbeat than it had under design maestro Richard Saul Wurman, who founded and nurtured TED for years.

Under Wurman, TED was described by some early attendees as a form of "show and tell for adults" which involved into a "show and tell with geniuses for adults." Under Anderson, it is self consciously moving from the "Cirque du Soleil for the mind" he envisioned in acquiring TED to a "Cirque du Soleil for the mind, with humanitarian intent," much to the applause of an audience willing to plunk down $4,400 14 months in advance to ensure a spot in the conference's Main Hall.

TED is as strong as ever.

Finally, congratulations to 2005 TEDglobal (Oxford, UK) producer Bruno Giussani for his excellent liveblogging of all sessions, here, and ditto to the copious Ethan Zuckerman, who turned over his entire website to TED for four days of live blogging in which he estimates he wrote more than 19,000 words in 45 postings. Blogger Verite, indeed!

Up next for TED2007? "Icons. Geniuses. Mavericks." What more could you want?

TED - Halftime Report

Since assuming the stewardship of TED - Technology Entertainment Design - Chris Anderson and his Sapling foundation have
accentuated the humanitarian opportunities to leverage design, entertainment and technology to profoundly improve the world and the human condition.

This year's convocation has become the most seemless integration of the four-day, $4,400, 1,000+ participant extravaganza with noble causes which could truly and literally save humanity.

Under the mantle "The Future We Will Create," TED2006 is taking Chris's vision to a new level while deepening the conference's associations with influential long-time TEDsters like the partners of venture capital firms Kleiner Perkins Byers & Caufield and Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and the founders of high tech blockbuster companies like Kleiner-backed Google and Amazon.

The main highlights of the first half of the conference were unquestionably Wednesday evening's 'Bonus Session' with former Vice President Al Gore on the coming global crisis from climate change, and the distribution Thursday evening of the three TEDprizes, whose winners each was allowed to make one 'wish' to be granted by the TED community:

- Cameron Sinclair, founder of Architecture for Humanity to generate radically improved designs for cost-effective shelter, desires a community to embrace open source design for improving living standards for all,

- Jehane Nojaim, the documentary film-maker whose film "Control Room" explored the U.S. war in Iraq and coverage of the conflict by al-Jezeera television network, wishes to bring the world together on one day every year through the power of a simultaneous screening of film and

- Dr. Larry Brilliant, the public health maverick who played a leading role in eradicating Smallpox, wants help building a powerful new early warning system "to protect the world form some of its worst nightmares," including Avian flu.

Brilliant arrived at TED immediately after being named to head Google's charitable foundation, also played a key role recently in helping the venerable venture firm Kleiner Perkins establish a $200 million fund dedicated to preventing pandemics and reducing their potential impact.

Kudos to play-by-play session reports by our friend Bruno Giussani, who produced the more intimate TEDglobal event at Oxford, England, last July.

Session One - History's Arrow - Demographic Directions and glimpses at Future Scenarios [hint: we may want to wake up, strap on seatbelts, and consider avoiding catastrophe].

Session Two - [Don't Hold your] Sharp Intake of Breath - of which the troupe of delighting [HIV/AIDS-orphaned] Ugandan dancers totally rocked TED.

Day One Bonus Session - Al Gore.

Session 3 - Small Miracles.

Session 4 - Links within a Flattened World,

Session 5 on Pastor Rick and Skeptics,

and, of course,

TEDprize Winners.

At the end of Day Two, Anderson also announced TEDglobal 2007 will be held in Tanzania June 3-6 - presuming of course we're not strickent by a global pandemic, a surge in global warming, a conflagration of international strife, etc.

Off to TED

Headed off to TED this morning.

A confessed multi-year TEDster*, I'm particular enthused about this year's presenter lineup - including the three TED Prize winners:

- Cameron Sinclair, founder of Architecture for Humanity to generate radically improved designs for spartan shelters, esp. after disaster strikes and to withstand future natural disasters,

- Jehane Nojaim, a Harvard-educated documentary film-maker who directed Control Room, a bluntly irreverent and candid film which accosts our current politics and  media, and

- Dr. Larry Brilliant, a friend long praised for his role in eradicating Smallpox and now deeply instrumental in preparations for a Avian Flu pandemic, which would be truly devastating.

In fact, Avian Flu already is economically for poultry farmers in Asia, and is now spreading to other continents, and these are the sort of threats which inspired me to accept a visiting fellowship in the Reuters Digital Vision Program at Stanford, following discussions at TED2005 with Priceline Founder Jay Walker and Jacqueline Novogratz, founder of Acumen Fund.

Brilliant has played a key role in helping the venerable venture firm Kleiner Perkins establish a $200 million fund dedicated to preventing pandemics and reducing their potential impact.

As if this weren't enough, amid TED's usual high-quality list of speakers, former Vice President Al Gore will be providing a version of his excellent [and similarly daunting] talk on the huge risks of Global Warming, and the absurdity of media myths it may not be occuring.

Last year, you will recall we found some were daunted by  the size TED had become, topping 1,000 attendees swarming over the auditorium and overflow lounge, albeit copiously appointed with conveniences of modern life, including Starbucks coffee and abundant WiFi.

A few also grumbled over the TED Prize, then in its first year, including the selection of U2 rockstar Bono who many felt had enough fame in his own right. Yet the singer won over the auditorium with an inspiring talk on the urgency of supporting Africa, all on a high tech 'telepresence' device from an out-of-town remote location.

This year, TED2006 is just as large - in fact some were encouraged to shift their registration to next year to make room for the crush on the wait list.  There is also little doubt  the TED Prize - which provides each winner $100,000 plus granting of a wish to be fullfilled by the TED community - is also becoming a fixture of a program TED curator Chris Anderson seems determined to keep tweaking and improving.  Bully for him.

Demand, and the 'buy-in' to a growing TED community, appears to be stronger than ever.

TED2006 begins with several hours of 'TEDuniversity' which includes dozens of mini-seminars provided by fellow TEDsters.  I'm also looking forward to learning TREO tips from a rather highly sought after session introducing the TREO 700W PDA phone.

More soon...

*Yes, I've authored the last three Conferenza reports on TED and its recent offshoot at Oxford, England, TEDglobal.

Brian Oberkirch Joins Conferenza Team

Brian Oberkirch of Weblogs Work has agreed to join our burgeoning Conferenza team. Brian is an outstanding journalist and podcast interviewer.  More than that, he made blog history with his poignant, valuable, community rebuilding efforts at the Slidell Hurricane Blog following Katrina's devastation. Slidell is a small town across Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans. It's Brian's hometown and the site helped people scattered all over the country find loved ones and learn what happened house-by-house to the town which suffered even greater damage than it's nearby neighbor.

Brian and I will both be attending the New Communications Forum in Palo Alto March 1-3.  Look for his first Conferenza contribution there.

Graeme's Conferenza WrapUp

Graeme Thickens has written a most prolific series on the Demo conference.  He says there were 30 postings in all, but we didn't keep count.  In any case he has an excellent wrap up of the event here.

Save $200 at New Communications Forum

If you are a communications professional who wants to know more about the emerging social media, such as blogging and wikis, you may want to check out the New Communications Forum March 1-3.  It begins with an optional, hands-on boot camp followed by a packed two-day roster of notables from traditional press, the communications profession, notable bloggers and at least a half-dozen authors of books on related subjects. If you tell them Conferenza sent you, when you register you can save $200.  If you're ready to do so just skip to the last paragraph below. If you want to know more, read on.

Because this is a new conference, produced by a new and interesting group--the Society for New Communications Research, we opted to interview Executive Director Jennifer McClure, a co-founder.  The following Q&A lets her tell her the Society's story without our intervention.

What is the New Communications Forum and who should attend?

New Communications Forum  was founded in 2005 and quickly gained its reputation as one of the world's leading conferences focusing on blogs, wikis, RSS, podcasts, videocasts and other emerging media and communications platforms.

New Communications Forum is a focused conference specifically designed to teach PR, marketing, advertising and media professionals how to harness the power of new media tools for corporate branding and internal and external communications initiatives.

The forum provides an in-depth, hands-on exploration of the future of communications. Presenters and instructors are senior professionals from around the world and journalists from leading media outlets, all of whom have pioneered the use of these new tools and technologies. They will share their in-the-trenches experiences as early adopters of these new tools.

What do you consider to be the program highlights?

We are incredibly proud of our speaker roster, which features many of the world's leading experts and authors on these topics. For example, our keynote presenters, which of course include you and Robert Scoble, also include Rebecca Blood, author of the Weblog Handbook; Charlene Li, Principal Analyst, Forrester Research; Jeremy Wright, author, Blog Marketing and Jory Des Jardins, blogger, Pause and co-author with Jeremy of More Space.

What will an attendee leave knowing or understanding, that he or she might not otherwise get?

We hope every attendee, regardless of his or her level of familiarity or experience with these new communications technologies, will leave the conference able to implement new ideas and programs.  The beginner can get hands-on in-depth training and be ready to get started when they leave the conference.  The communications professional already familiar with or active in blogging, podcasting or other newcomm tools will be inspired by the many wonderful case studies, success stories, tips and best practices that will be shared in our breakout sessions and keynote presentations. 

There are a great deal of conferences touching these same issues.  What's unique about the New Communications Forum?

We believe NewComm Forum is unique in that it will address the entire field of communications in a very comprehensive and holistic way. People will leaving with a better understanding of the impact of these new tools and modes of communication.  We'll offer 24 breakout sessions including advertising, marketing, PR and new media case studies as well as panel discussions focusing on topics such as:  "What is a journalist and why does it matter?"  "RSS as an Advertising Platform," "Managing Information Overload in the Age of Digital Influence," The Role of Humor in Blogs and Marketing," "Engaging the New Influencers" and many others.  These are not the same old hackneyed topics.

We are really taking the conversation to the next level, examining how blogs, wikis, podcasts, videocasts and other emerging tools, technologies and modes of communication are affecting organizations and how communications professionals are harnessing these tools to engage in market conversations, deepen and strengthen relationships with key audiences, gain new insights into their audiences' perceptions and behavior and achieve bottom line results.

So how do Conferenza readers get that $200 price break you mentioned?

Conferenza readers can can register online at www.newcommforum.com or call 650-331-0083 to receive a $200. discount on their registration by using the promo code NCFR200

Steve Rubel Joins Edelman

This post has been moved to here, where it should have gone in the first place.

Marc Cantor: Payola Works at eTech

Marc Cantor says $10 K will get you a speaking gig at this emerging technology conference, we are sorry to hear.

Conferences That Matter 2006: David Hornik

I recently had the opportunity to sit down face-to-face with David Hornik, one of the most knowledgeable conference goers I know. After a brief catch-up, which I would have gladly extended into hours -- our conversation ranged from the song "Schadenfreude" from the musical Avenue Q to his thoughts on the new role of VCs in the Web 2.0 era -- I explained the Conferences That Matter series, and we got down to business.

The idea behind the series is simple: my colleagues at Conferenza and I will be talking with a wide and eclectic group of frequent conference attendees, a diverse and eclectic group of frequent conference goers, and reporting on their insights, plans, and never-agains. We will be talking with entrepreneurs, researchers, VCs, and journalists, trying to tease out the best bets for 2006.

I was glad to hear that David and I would be overlapping at the O'Reilly Emerging Technology (ETech) conference. In this case, he will be presenting his thoughts about email there, but he would have attended, anyway.

His other choices are unsurprising, considering his role as a tech VC. He is attending both of Chris Shipley's DEMO conferences (February in Phoenix, and September in New York). He is also planning to attend CES, PopTech, PC Forum, TED, the Wall Street Journal's D4, The Entertainment Gathering, GNOMEDEX, and Web 2.0.

David's conference experience sounds a lot like mine: it is not about sitting and listening to the sessions. David believes that 90% of his time at most conferences is spent outside the formal sessions, although this is less true at DEMO or TED. Part of his rationale is structural: "I hate multitrack conferences." The fracturing of the conference into multiple tracks means that the attendees don't have a shared experience, which is a mistake, he feels.

David likes conferences where 'distant analogies' are possible -- where people of very diverse backgrounds are brought together, and strange but wonderful connections are made in the head. In part because you can't predict what is going to be the most enlightening. He singled out Etech as a good example of that: they have a wide range of speakers and topics, to the degree that they almost seem arbitrary, except for the caliber of the speakers. It becomes difficult to predict what is going to matter, but the stretching to makes sense of it all can make it worthwhile.

David has strong feelings about the flabbiness of panel sessions. For example, he believes Ann Grimes' Ventures Outlook conference needs to drop that format. Despite having been on Outlook panels in the past, the panel session format is pretty uneven in quality, and rarely leads to many Aha moments. David serves on the DEMO Advisory Board, where he has unequivocally recommended no more panels, ever.

David is drawn to some speakers, like Steve Jobs and Larry Lessig, who are always fun to watch. He considers them performance artists, and is always open for one more mind-boggling presentation from either of them.

He returned to the DEMO format, where he thinks the six minute moment in the spotlight has led to real invention. On the same note, he likes the format of the Under The Radar series, where companies present for short periods of time and are then critiqued by a panel of judges. This is, perhaps, the exception to Hornik's Death To All Panel Sessions rule. I concur: like haiku, the constrained format can lead to an interesting presentation artistry.

David stressed that high production values are crucial, although so often missed. He used examples of missteps at the Web 2.0 conference as a case in point, singling out the oddly shaped demo room -- both was extremely wide and extremely short -- the worst possible shape for demos. And then, to add insult to injury, the Knownow alert tombstone that ran across several demos following Knownow's. That could have been caught with a full run-through before, which was presumably not done, he believes.

David averages about 15 conference per year, but also makes time for retreat-style get-aways, like FOO Camp and The Gathering, which is a weekend off in the hills somewhere with a mix of artists, technologists and musicians. A recent Gathering was held at the home of Guy La Leberte, founder of Circ du Soliel. David looks forward to this more intimate event each year. Hey David, wrangle me an invite, will you?

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