Vancouver adopts TED as Gates, Lewinsky join Canada ideas fest

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Switzerland has Davos. Texas has South by Southwest. Now Vancouver has TED.

Canada’s third-biggest city has become the adopted home for the largest of the TED Talks conferences, a series of gatherings of thought leaders discussing technology, entertainment and design.

The annual five-day event, with an emphasis on science and creativity, was held in Vancouver for the first time last year after moving from Long Beach, California.

“Amazing,” Rodney Priestley, an assistant professor of engineering at Princeton University, said March 17 as he emerged from a morning of presentations on the latest in cognitive science and robotics at this year’s “Truth and Dare” edition of the conference. “I had seen TED talks on the Web, but being in the audience just elevates them even more.”

The annual ideas fest is scheduled to return to Vancouver next February with the theme “Dream,” Margaret Sullivan, an external communications advisor, said in an email. The TED organization has a permanent office in Vancouver, to go along with its New York headquarters, according to its website.

Staged at the Vancouver Convention Centre that juts into Vancouver’s inner harbor and was built for the 2010 Winter Olympics, the TED conference is no ordinary gathering. Delegates pay $8,500 to attend. And speakers or their nominees must submit an application to explain why they should be on stage to address the 1,300 delegates with a TED-signature 18-minute talk.

As a group, TED speakers have won every major prize awarded for excellence, including the Nobel, Pritzker, Pulitzer, Oscar, Grammy, Emmy, Tony and MacArthur “genius” grant, according to TED’s website.

The organization also looks out for emerging artists, scientists and thinkers, seeking to raise awareness of them and their ideas before they become mainstream.

Last year’s conference, which marked 30 years of TED, included a surprise video interview with former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden and a solo guitar performance by Chris Hadfield, a former Canadian astronaut and International Space Station commander, of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” song.

Speakers this year included former White House intern Monica Lewinsky on cyberbullying, and inventors of a Terminator 2-inspired 3-D printer and a pulsating vest that allows the deaf to “hear.” Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates spoke on the need for governments to prepare for future pandemics as if they were going to war.

The conference is a boon to Vancouver and British Columbia, already set to post the fastest economic growth among Canadian provinces this year.

“The city has marketed itself internationally very well,” Brian Woodcock, a retired advertising and marketing instructor at Vancouver’s Kwantlen Polytechnic University, said this week. “We had Expo ‘86, the Winter Olympics in 2010 and we’re increasingly well known as a city for our film, creative and technical industries.”

Priestley, attending his first TED conference, said he was inspired to “get to that next level so one of these times I can be a presenter instead of just an audience member.”

TED talks also reach the masses, with more than a billion web views of its talks from past conferences. About 30 people gathered in a basement meeting room at the Vancouver Public Library on March 17 to watch a free, live feed of the conference’s morning session.

“This is totally and utterly brilliant,” said Amanda Levy, a Vancouver-based personal coach. “There’s no way I could ever afford to go to TED.”

Not that paying customers such as David Altschul, a Portland, Oregon-based advertising executive, are complaining about TED’s admission price.

“I buy the notion that this conference makes the money that drives a lot of the rest of the organization,” said Altschul, who said the Vancouver event was his 20th TED conference. “A big part of it is essentially sponsoring whatever TED is for the rest of the world.”

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Local News

A firefighter stands in silence before a panel bearing the names of L. John Regelbrugge and Kris Regelbrugge during the ten-year remembrance of the Oso landslide on Friday, March 22, 2024, at the Oso Landslide Memorial in Oso, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘Flood of emotions’ as Oso Landslide Memorial opens on 10th anniversary

Friends, family and first responders held a moment of silence at 10:37 a.m. at the new 2-acre memorial off Highway 530.

Julie Petersen poses for a photo with images of her sister Christina Jefferds and Jefferds’ grand daughter Sanoah Violet Huestis next to a memorial for Sanoah at her home on March 20, 2024 in Arlington, Washington. Peterson wears her sister’s favorite color and one of her bangles. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
‘It just all came down’: An oral history of the Oso mudslide

Ten years later, The Daily Herald spoke with dozens of people — first responders, family, survivors — touched by the deadliest slide in U.S. history.

Victims of the Oso mudslide on March 22, 2014. (Courtesy photos)
Remembering the 43 lives lost in the Oso mudslide

The slide wiped out a neighborhood along Highway 530 in 2014. “Even though you feel like you’re alone in your grief, you’re really not.”

Director Lucia Schmit, right, and Deputy Director Dara Salmon inside the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management on Friday, March 8, 2024, in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
How Oso slide changed local emergency response ‘on virtually every level’

“In a decade, we have just really, really advanced,” through hard-earned lessons applied to the pandemic, floods and opioids.

Ron and Gail Thompson at their home on Monday, March 4, 2024 in Oso, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
In shadow of scarred Oso hillside, mudslide’s wounds still feel fresh

Locals reflected on living with grief and finding meaning in the wake of a catastrophe “nothing like you can ever imagine” in 2014.

Everett mall renderings from Brixton Capital. (Photo provided by the City of Everett)
Topgolf at the Everett Mall? Mayor’s hint still unconfirmed

After Cassie Franklin’s annual address, rumors circled about what “top” entertainment tenant could be landing at Everett Mall.

Everett
Everett man sentenced to 3 years of probation for mutilating animals

In 2022, neighbors reported Blayne Perez, 35, was shooting and torturing wildlife in north Everett.

Dorothy Crossman rides up on her bike to turn in her ballot  on Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2023 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Everett leaders plan to ask voters for property tax increase

City officials will spend weeks hammering out details of a ballot measure, as Everett faces a $12.6 million deficit.

Starbucks employee Zach Gabelein outside of the Mill Creek location where he works on Friday, Feb. 23, 2024 in Mill Creek, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Mill Creek Starbucks votes 21-1 to form union

“We obviously are kind of on the high of that win,” store bargaining delegate Zach Gabelein said.

Lynnwood police respond to a collision on highway 99 at 176 street SW. (Photo provided by Lynnwood Police)
Police: Teen in stolen car flees cops, causes crash in Lynnwood

The crash blocked traffic for over an hour at 176th Street SW. The boy, 16, was arrested on felony warrants.

The view of Mountain Loop Mine out the window of a second floor classroom at Fairmount Elementary on Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
County: Everett mining yard violated order to halt work next to school

At least 10 reports accused OMA Construction of violating a stop-work order next to Fairmount Elementary. A judge will hear the case.

Imagine Children's Museum's incoming CEO, Elizabeth "Elee" Wood. (Photo provided by Imagine Children's Museum)
Imagine Children’s Museum in Everett to welcome new CEO

Nancy Johnson, who has led Imagine Children’s Museum in Everett for 25 years, will retire in June.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.