Comment: TED has had a great bearing on my life

Feb 19 2009 by Herb Kim for The Journal

IN July 2005, my life was about to change, not once, but twice within a week. On July 27 my daughter was born at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle.

Later that week, I learned about the TED conference from the pages of The Observer. Little did I know how much both would make massive and positive changes to my personal and professional life.

Since July 2005, my daughter has just continued to grow, mature and delight me on an almost daily basis. And since July 2005, the TED has managed to do the same.

I’ve been lucky enough to attend TED since 2006 and it has gone on to be the inspiration for the North East’s own Thinking Digital conference. Our first Thinking Digital was a big success and the conference will run again in May this year and next.

Having said all of that, this year’s TED was a mixed affair. The conference marked its 25th anniversary by moving to a new home in Long Beach, California. While it has pluses, it lacks the intimacy of the old Monterey, California, home that made TED the unique experience it had been for so long.

On the other hand, TED’s speakers and performers remained as strong as ever. Household names included Bill Gates, Seth Godin, Tim Berners Lee, Regina Spektor, Oliver Sacks, Daniel Libeskind, Jose Antonio Abreu, Herbie Hancock, Jamie Cullum and Al Gore. Hans Rosling, who’ll be appearing at Thinking Digital in May, made a surprise return appearance on stage.

One theme this year was how much technology is changing the human body. Futurist Juan Enriquez predicted that we would soon see the rise of a new generation of humans – Homo Evolutis – the first humans to be able to control their own evolution as well as the evolution of species around it.

One theme notable in its absence from TED was the economic crisis and TED curator Chris Anderson explained this was not an accident. With the release of its video library onto the internet and the move to its new home, TED has become one of the world’s most influential events. It will be fascinating to see if TED will be able to continue surfing the tidal wave of popularity, or if it has allowed its ambitions to get the better of it.

I, for one, am investing long on TED and its future.

Herb Kim is chief executive of Codeworks, a centre of digital innovation in the North East.