Life of a Storyteller
TED TALKS - CASE STUDIES
2017
"My idea of a perfect world really can't be designed by one person or even by a million experts. It's going to be 7 billion pairs of hands, each following their own passions." ~ Jay Silver at Ted Talks
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"If you hire people just because they can do a job, they'll work for your money. But if you hire people who believe what you believe, they'll work for you with blood and sweat and tears." ~ Simon Sinek at TEDx
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TED is something that will make your life much better – A friend that you never had, a teacher that will show you a world in a different way, and a Hope that will give you the inspiration to do something different. TED (Technology, Entertainment, and Design) is a nonprofit organization that spreads innovative Ideas, usually in short and powerful talks (18 minutes or less). It was founded by a Graphic Designer Richard Saul Wurman in February 1984 as a conference. TED began as a conference where they cover Technology, Entertainment, and Design Topics, and Today TED covers almost all the topics, from global issues to business to science, in more than 100 languages.
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TED has its own subsidiaries' projects and events to deliver experiences to as many people as possible. The leading TED conferences are held in Vancouver Convention Centre, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. TED gives a maximum of 18 minutes to their speakers to present their ideas most innovatively and to engage their audience. TED building a clearinghouse of free knowledge to inspire people, they believe passionately in the power of ideas to change the attitude of people, life, and, ultimately, the world.
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Everything they do, they do it for a reason, from their Conferences to their TED Talks to the projects sparked by TED prize, TED-ED lesson series to global TED community, all this is driven by this goal: How can TED spread great ideas?
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Challenges:
TED started conferences on the belief that ideas are uniquely powerful to shape a future. They believe that your brain contains thousands of designs, and those ideas determine how you see the world and how you act. With that belief, some people criticize them by saying that TED talks are overrated. Disagreements have also occurred between organizers and TED speakers.
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In the first conference of TED, they featured a presentation of "Demos of the compact disc" that presentation was given by famous mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot and IT professional community members. The event was financially unsuccessful, and it took six years to organized a second conference of TED.
Strategy:
After the failure of their first event, they came up with the idea to organise their events separately. They had drawn the speakers from the field of expertise. The presenters they hired were most likely; Scientists, Philosophers, musicians, religious leaders, and many more. They started their subsidiaries in many other names. i.e.
1. TEDGlobal – TEDGlobal held conferences all over the world. They have been connecting with UK, Europe, Tanzania, Edinburg, Scotland, Brazil, and India.
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2. The Open Translation Project (OTP) – OTP is for those 4.5 billion people on the earth who don’t speak English. At the time of launch, 300 Translation had done by 200 volunteer transcribers in 40 languages.
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3. TEDx – TEDx can be organized by anyone who can acquire a free license from TED. TEDx are independent like TED.
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And Other Programs;
TED Fellow, TEDMED, TED Books, TedEd Clubs, TED Women, TED Salon, TED Radio Hour. TED Talks are freely available on their website and youtube. As of March 2016, over 2400 TED Talks combined viewing figure was more than 500 million.
Conclusion:
In 2000, Richard met with TED enthusiast Chris Anderson to discuss the future happening. In November 2001, Anderson’s nonprofit organization acquired TED from future value for £6m. After that, TED becomes the fasted growing nonprofit online education center. TED is currently funded by many corporates such as Google, Golden Sachs, Coca-Cola Company, etc. and it’s a combination of various revenue streams, including conference attendance fees, sponsorship, book sales, and foundation support. Currently, TED has about 140 people headquartered in NYC and Vancouver.