About TED

The life of TED began in 1984 in California when architect and graphic designer Richard Saul Wurman set out to create the "ultimate dinner party." The goal was a marriage between technology, entertainment, and design. However, it has stretched its scope into other areas such as gender, humanities, sociology, etc.

Richard and Harry Marks co-founded the inaugural TED, which featured a demo of the CD, the e-book, and cutting-edge 3D graphics from Lucasfilm, as well as a demonstration by mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot of how to map coastlines using his evolving fractal geometry theory.

However, the event was a financial fiasco despite having a stellar lineup; and it took Wurman and Marks six years to try again in 1990. Boy! It was a huge success.

The TED Conference developed into an annual event in Monterey, California, drawing an expanding and influential audience from a wide range of disciplines connected by their shared sense of curiosity and openness—as well as by the exciting secret they had discovered.

TED is an "anti-conference"—no death by PowerPoint or one-hour lectures.