TED looking for new leader

[SmittyShmee]

Summary

The current head of TED, Chris Anderson, who's currently 69 (nice) is looking to step aside and wants someone new to carry on TED's mission for the next 25 years.

 

The new lead would be in charge of:

TED	The business unit
TED Foundation	The not for profit
TED events	Their conferences
TEDx	TED-licensed events
TED’s digital library	Over 250k talks and animations
TED Media	Non-TED talk media from events
TED Podcasts	Over 150 million annual downloads
TED-Ed	An interactive learning platform
TED Members	15k paid members
TED Partners	TED’s interactions with brands
TED Translators	Volunteer transcribers for subtitles
TED Fellows	TED’s interactions with specific individuals
TED TV	Documentaries for streaming
TED@Work	Workplace learning platform
TED Games	An online “smart games” space
TED NYC	Office space in NYC

Edit: some people didn't know what TED was, here's a brief description:

TED, which stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, is a non-profit media organization that hosts partisan-free conferences and talks online. TED's mission is to share ideas and research from a variety of disciplines. TED was founded in 1984.

 

Quotes

Quote

So today, with the support of dear friends and colleagues, I am issuing an open invitation to anyone who believes they might have the resources and the ideas to oversee TED for its next 25 years (and beyond!) to step forward.

 

My thoughts

I'm sure every single member of LTT and the LTT Forums has seen at least one TED/TEDx video in their lifetime. I, like I assume all of you, would like to see this foundation carry on and go into a set of good hands (especially with the way things seem to be going politically in the world right now).

 

In addition to being tech news, TED is based in Vancouver. Linus Media Group, is also based in the Vancouver-area and is already a media company. Seems like a way that LMG as a whole could expand its name and outreach.

 

Sources

• https://blog.ted.com/an-exciting-new-chapter-for-ted/?utm_campaign=mb&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_source=morning_brew
• https://www.morningbrew.com/stories/2025/02/07/head-of-ted-pulls-a-willy-wonka?mbcid=38511160.9730&mid=71a47c1d4ad1b537c351902d9e61b409&utm_campaign=mb&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_source=morning_brew

Edited February 7 by SmittyShmee

[Wingfan]

Never heard of this

[Levent]

10 minutes ago, SmittyShmee said:

In addition to being tech news, TED is based in Vancouver. Linus Media Group, is also based in the Vancouver-area and is already a media company. Seems like a way that LMG as a whole could expand its name and outreach.

Now that is a scary thought.

[Zodiark1593]

2 hours ago, Levent said:

Now that is a scary thought.

LMG Media Empire. 

[IkeaGnome]

1 hour ago, Zodiark1593 said:

LMG Media Empire. 

Nah, that's where it would make sense to start up Yvonne Umbrella Corp. 

[SpaceGhostC2C]

5 hours ago, SmittyShmee said:

I'm sure every single member of LTT and the LTT Forums has seen at least one TED/TEDx video in their lifetime.

I have, and, to this date, I have no idea what their point is.

 

5 hours ago, SmittyShmee said:

I, like I assume all of you, would like to see this foundation carry on

I don't care either way, to be honest.

 

[Mynameischef]

1 hour ago, SpaceGhostC2C said:

I have, and, to this date, I have no idea what their point is.

 

I don't care either way, to be honest.

 

I imagine you feel the same towards any speaking event?
I just don't see how you cant understand someone sharing information in a sharable format lol.

[SansVarnic]

Never found TED to be useful just a place for people to pontificate pointlessly. Lmg doesn't need to be involved. 

[SmittyShmee]

6 minutes ago, SansVarnic said:

Lmg doesn't need to be involved. 

I'm not suggesting LMG or TED have anything to do with each other necessarily. More, if the folk running LMG are looking for new business opportunities in the same space they're already in (just a different demographic). Its not uncommon for people to have multiple businesses under their belts.

[SpaceGhostC2C]

3 hours ago, Mynameischef said:

I imagine you feel the same towards any speaking event?

I don't know what you mean by "speaking event".

People speak all the time. There are plenty of formats and contexts. I feel differently about all of them.

And I continue to not know what a TED talk is supposed to be.

[LAwLz]

17 hours ago, Levent said:

Now that is a scary thought.

Indeed. 

I feel like Linus is one of the last people I'd want to run this. It's a non-profit and very serious organisation that doesn't necessarily cater to the lowest common denominator. It's like the polar opposite of LMG.

 

12 hours ago, SpaceGhostC2C said:

I have, and, to this date, I have no idea what their point is.

 

I don't care either way, to be honest.

 

7 hours ago, SpaceGhostC2C said:

I don't know what you mean by "speaking event".

People speak all the time. There are plenty of formats and contexts. I feel differently about all of them.

And I continue to not know what a TED talk is supposed to be.

I think it's a bit strange that you keep commenting about how you don't know or care about this topic. It almost feels like you're making a point that you're proud to be ignorant about this. 

 

It seems like OP added the description later so you might have missed it, so I'll quote it here:

18 hours ago, SmittyShmee said:

TED, which stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, is a non-profit media organization that hosts partisan-free conferences and talks online. TED's mission is to share ideas and research from a variety of disciplines. TED was founded in 1984.

 

But if you didn't know what it was, why keep commenting on it instead of just looking it up? I know we're not allowed to post "let me Google that for you"-type links, but looking up what a ted talk is takes like 1 minute. Probably less time and then time you have spent writing your posts in this thread saying you don't care or know what the topic is about. 

 

The one thing I don't think is easy enough to find on your own is that TED and TEDx are very, very different. 

Whenever you see a terrible ted talk, it's usually from TEDx. Don't judge TED by what you see on TEDx. They are two different things with very different standards. 

[SansVarnic]

20 hours ago, SpaceGhostC2C said:

And I continue to not know what a TED talk is supposed to be.

I dont think ted talks knows what ted talks is supposed to be... /s

[Salted Spinach]

They host and work with a certain Anita and her movement. Give a wide berth. Dont bother with the victim card, it doesn't work anymore.

[Chree]

[LAwLz]

5 hours ago, Salted Spinach said:

They host and work with a certain Anita and her movement. Give a wide berth. Dont bother with the victim card, it doesn't work anymore.

That was TEDx, not TED. But difference as I mentioned here:

On 2/8/2025 at 10:26 AM, LAwLz said:

Whenever you see a terrible ted talk, it's usually from TEDx. Don't judge TED by what you see on TEDx. They are two different things with very different standards. 

 

TEDx have way looser rules. 

[divito]

On 2/7/2025 at 5:28 PM, SansVarnic said:

Never found TED to be useful just a place for people to pontificate pointlessly. 

The breadth of experts and topics makes this statement ridiculously suspect.

[SansVarnic]

1 hour ago, divito said:

The breadth of experts and topics makes this statement ridiculously suspect.

Just my opinion. 

[starsmine]

On 2/8/2025 at 11:48 PM, Salted Spinach said:

They host and work with a certain Anita and her movement. Give a wide berth. Dont bother with the victim card, it doesn't work anymore.

I have no idea which anita you are referring to. 

If you are talking about Sarkisian... gamer gate was built on lies. The entire foundation of that movement isn't true and was never about ethics, that was just a mask. Also she had a talk in 2012? Pre-gamer Gate?

I know Why Ted felt the need to expand to Tedx stuff, but man does Tedx not have the solid quality control giving ted talks in general a bad name. While there are a handful of bad Ted talks, they are few and far between when compared to how much slop comes out of Tedx. Though there are hundreds of good tedx talks.

Ted talks themselves are often very interesting and give you a new way to look at or address problems that you had not engaged with before. 

[Senzelian]

TED is a tech organization? Is this even tech news?

 

On 2/7/2025 at 11:28 PM, SansVarnic said:

Never found TED to be useful just a place for people to pontificate pointlessly. Lmg doesn't need to be involved. 

 

On 2/8/2025 at 10:46 PM, SansVarnic said:

I dont think ted talks knows what ted talks is supposed to be... /s

 

Sometimes it's just a comedy show. But a good one!

 

 

[NumLock21]

 

 

 

[williamcll]

wow I haven't watched TED for a long time, do they still have good shows or?