4 facts about TEDx

The TEDx movement turns 10 years old this year. In Novosibirsk, the conference will be held for the seventh time. In this one, we have collected 10 interesting facts about TEDx.

First about what TEDx is

TED is a project which has gradually become a noticeable phenomenon in the intellectual life around the world. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. The first TED conference was organised in 1984 in Monterey, California, by Richard Saul Wurman and Harry Marks. It showcased the newly released Macintosh computer and a CD created by Sony.

How the TED conference became an annual event

The conference has been held annually since 1990. Since 2001, the rights for TED have been held by the SaplingFoundation and its creator Chris Anderson. It was he who articulated the project's single mission - "Ideas worth spreading".

How ideas from TED speakers started to spread around the world

In 2006, TED began posting speakers' performances on its website and on YouTube. The first video on TED's YouTube channel titled "Rives Control the Internet" has just over 330,000 views to date. The most popular video on the channel is James Veatch's "What happens when you start replying to spam". It has been viewed by over 40 million people. And that's just on the official channel, not counting the many copies.

How the TEDx project came about

The lightning-fast distribution of TED videos turned an exclusive conference into a viral thought factory. The result of this globalization was the TEDx project, which allows individuals or groups of people in different countries, cities, universities and communities to organize independent TED-style conferences. TED-style conferences have been held in Russia since 2009.