Saturday, January 30, 2010

TED News-3: "The Rediscovery of Wonder"

I am reproducing below a mail received from TED Curator, Chris Anderson, about TED 2011: The Rediscovery of Wonder for the benefit of all:

Dear TED Member,

We're delighted to announce that registration for TED2011 is open. As an existing member of the TED community, you have a chance to sign up ahead of the crowd! Simply sign in, complete the form and submit. Our system should have remembered the prior details we have on record for you so hopefully it won't take too long. Even though we expect, as in prior years, to be oversubscribed within a few days, all applications received by noon (US Eastern time) Thursday February 4th will be granted equal consideration.

TED2011 will be held once again in Long Beach, and runs Feb 28-March 4, 2001. (By popular demand, we're moving one day earlier in the week to a Monday-Friday format.)

Next year's theme takes us right to the core what so many people love about their TED experience: "The Rediscovery of Wonder". Breathtaking scientific discovery and mind-bending creativity will be on display as never before.

The conference fee has been at $6,000 for the past two years (of which $2k covers core costs and $4k is considered a donation to TED), and despite being massively oversold, we've decided to keep this price tier available for a third year, because we're aware that in the current economy many of our favorite TEDsters have to stretch to pay to come to TED. But if you can afford it, we do invite you to consider applying for Donor status. In addition to the extra privileges that come with the different color on your badge, $10k of your $12k fee is treated as a donation, and you'll therefore be making a spectacular contribution to spreading knowledge, insight and inspiration around the world. If you can't afford $12k, there is also an opportunity on the page to add a smaller amount on top of the $6k floor.

Whatever your level of contribution, in order to make your donation more meaningful, we'd like to give you a chance to specify which element of our work you'd most like to support. So on the reg page you'll be given the chance to select one of the following:

TED discretionary. You allow us to make use of the donation as most needed

TED Prize. Your donation goes toward one of the TED prize projects (you can specify which one, or - if you're willing - leave it up to us.) These are all initiatives in which any money you put in is massively leveraged by the efforts of the many collaborators working on each wish.

TED Talks distribution. Your donation supports the global distribution of TED talks online. Adding in all costs, each talk costs around 4 cents per view, so a basic $4k donation would literally allow 100,000 people to see a TED talk.

The Open Translation Project. Although the start-up costs were covered by Nokia, we have ambitious expansion plans for this project which is already enabling more than 2000 volunteer translators to bring TED to their local communities.

TED Fellows. This program is allowing 40 fellows and 15 senior fellows to be part of the TED community every year, significantly empowering a new generation of worldchanging talent.

TED to the developing world. We're now launching initiatives (involving DVDs, cell phones, TV, radio) to more effectively distribute talks in the developing world where internet access is limited.

TEDx Program. Thrillingly, hundreds of grass-roots organizers around the world are putting on independent TED-like events, many of which are of astounding quality, attracting amazing speakers new to TED. We would like to raise funding to better capture these events on video so that we can bring the best talks to TED.com.

Anyone at TED Donor level will be recognized on the website as a supporter of one of these initiatives. But more importantly still we just want you to understand that your money is being put to very good use. Without these contributions, TED could never have built these programs. And it's a remarkable thing that a single conference, backed by your support, is impacting the lives of literally millions around the world.

Therefore, finally, I just want to say -- and I really want you to hear me -- THANK YOU. Not a day goes by where we're not awed by the amazing group of people who make up the TED community.

We will process applications as fast as we can, though some will have to wait till after we get back from TED2010. The sooner you apply, the sooner yours will be processed, and all applications received by February 4th will get a response by February 25th.

Sincerely,
Chris Anderson, TED Curator

For details:
http://conferences.ted.com/TED2011/

http://conferences.ted.com/TED2011/program/

Grateful thanks to TED Team.

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