Enjoy fascinating thinkers sharing their knowledge. Read more…
The World Renown TED Conference is coming to Dubai. Scheduled on the 10th of October 2009 at the Palladium, TEDx is Dubai’s syndicated version of the TED Event.
TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, and Design; it’s an annual conference held in Long Beach, California with an aim of bringing together people from those three worlds. Bringing together the world’s most fascinating and radical thinkers and doers, the conference challenges them to give the talk of their lives in front of an audience for a mere 18 minutes.
Some of the participants discuss their ideas, others talk about their personal magnum-opuses (great works), and several display and walk the audience through their current experiments and discoveries; some of which are still going through research and development and others which have just been introduced to the public.
The first TED conference, alone, included demos of the newly released Macintosh computer and Sony compact disc. Not only do they discuss the next big idea in TED, they also bring in a myriad of the world’s best thinkers, fascinating doers, and intellectual orators – the likes of Jane Goodall, Al Gore, and Malcolm Gladwell. As Bill Gates of Microsoft once commented after attending a conference, "I wasn't prepared for this conference to be so profound. The combined IQ of the attendees is incredible."
TED has become a powerful cultural force. With a mission of spreading those ideas, the people behind TED “believe passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and ultimately, the world.” They are also, “devoted to giving millions of knowledge-seekers around the globe direct access to the world's greatest thinkers and teachers.”
TEDxDubai is affiliated with TED in the sense that it’s authorized by the mother-TED, but is an independent showing. In the Dubai event, they will showcase at least two TED talks selected among the many available on the TED website(http://www.ted.com/talks) as well as having live speakers. Some of the speakers were already announced such as Dr.Naif Al Mutuwa (creator of “The 99” – the first group of superheroes born of an Islamic archetype).
We asked the TEDx team if they will organize other TEDx events around the Gulf, but unfortunately it seems that they are only licensed to hold TED events in Dubai. However, they encourage other individuals to approach TED and ask to organize TEDx events in their respective towns, since “the region needs inspiring gatherings such as TEDx ones.”
Sounds exciting? Well, guess what only 1,000 tickets will be available. The entrance is free of charge but admission is by invitation only. People interested will need to register on the TEDx http://www.tedxdubai.com/ website.
– Khaleejesque. Images courtesy of TEDxDubai.
