I was first introduced to TED talks by my good friend Chase three years ago. He was a huge fan and even wrote a compelling post on how incredible TED is, but it was really this summer in Mongolia before I started to understand what Chase has been telling me about for over a year now.TED is a yearly conference that brings together most of the greatest minds of our time. They talk about the future of our planet, the incredible things that we can accomplish together, and the things they have done in their specialized fields which they find most exciting and life-changing. Some of my favorite speakers so far have been Al Gore, Bill Clinton, J.J. Abrams, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, Clifford Stoll, Yves Behar, Hector Ruiz, Stephen Hawking, Jane Goodall, Tony Robbins, Rick Warren and Richard Dawkins. There are many ways to see the videos of these incredible speakers, but my favorite is through downloading the video podcasts on iTunes. You can also view them on TED.com.
The beauty of TED is that it brings together people from almost every field in the world and gives you, the viewer, a chance to see them all together in one place. You can watch presentations by world famous professors, producers, theoretical physicists, spiritual leaders, politicians, architects, CEO's, ecologists and even a rock star or two, all while eating a slice of pizza in your boxers and house slippers. Nice life huh? Such is the power of the ambition, telecommunications and a belief in the power of the human spirit...not to mention a love for pizza and the internet. Speaking of which, why hasn’t pizza made it’s way to Mongolia yet? I need to write Papa John or DiGiorno an e-mail.
