Al Gore, Bill Gates, Bill Clinton have spoken at previous editions of TED in USA
Al Gore, Bill Gates, Bill Clinton have spoken at previous editions of TED in USA
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The Infosys campus in Mysore where TEDIndia is due to be held this year |
Twenty-five years ago, American architect Richard Saul Wurman saw the connection between Technology, Entertainment and Design, and along with his partner, Harry Marks, decided to organise a meeting of experts from the three fields. While the first event proved to be a dud, he re-attempted it six years later and this time everything fell into place. Since then, there has been no looking back. Held largely in the US and Europe, TED boasts of names such as Al Gore, Bill Gates, Bill Clinton, Quincy Jones, Jane Goodall among others. Today, Chris Anderson whose Sapling Foundation acquired TED in 2001, curates the event every year.
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Lakshmi Pratury, co-host TEDIndia |
Pratury explains, "India is one of the world's youngest countries and the event should be held where the future lives."
The list of speakers is long and full of illustrious names: filmmaker Shekhar Kapur, entrepreneur Anand Mahindra, cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle, actor Kamal Haasan, minister Shashi Tharoor, mythologist Devdutt Pattanaik and several others.
The speakers weren't simply approached over the past year. "I've spent years collecting people. I've worked in Intel, so I have several contacts there," she says.
That's how Devdutt Pattanaik, mythologist, was invited to speak at TED. "I knew her as a social contact but she had heard of my books and of me and she was very excited about bringing in mythology in TED," he says.
He refers to TEDIndia as a festival of knowledge which is a necessity in these times when every other
conference is either about "business or Bollywood". Pattanaik says, "My 18-minute talk will be about how better understanding of mythology can lead to more empathy between companies."
As for the choice of venue, Pratury says that it's a TED policy to pick the smaller towns. "India is a microcosm of the world and in a sense, Infosys is a microcosm of India. So we picked the Mysore campus."
Time is one of the biggest concerns of TED because apparently, any speech that goes on beyond 18 minutes fails to hold the audience's attention. "But not all talks will last even that long. Some will talk for nine minutes, some for even three!" says Pratury.
For Pattanaik, TEDIndia represents a platform on which to exchange knowledge and ideas. The varied list of speakers doesn't intimidate him. "It's time we stopped trying to be homogenous and promoted different cultures; learnt to co-exist," is his parting shot.u00a0
Pratury's dream line-up of speakers? Princes William and Harry and the King of Bhutan. "They're the youth and it would be interesting to see what they have to say. I've been trying to make it happen."
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