This was our first visit to a live TED event, the TEDx event, held at The Lowry on Salford Quays on November 10th, 2013. TED's strapline is 'ideas worth spreading' and that is certainly what a TEDx event attempts to do. Much of the day is taken up by speakers, all of who have around 15- 20 minutes to stimulate, inform and entertain the audience. Speakers come from a wide range of disciplines (we saw businessmen, musicians, cosmologists, entrepreneurs and some visionaries too). The subject matter ranges widely too. At first this is a little disconcerting, as there seems to be no common thread, so in an hour you may be treated to a spiritual approach to business, crowd-funding, perceptions of reality and questions of our very existence, but if they do have one thing in common, they all make you think. As well as the theatre-based presentations, there are breakout sessions and opportunities to network outside the main events. It would have been good to have had better internet access during the day, but the organisers have to be admired for putting up on display the live Twitter feed during breaks. Not all comments were complimentary towards some the speakers, but that is TED being true to their philosophy - it's about stimulating minds and debating information and opinions.
The event was live-streamed and some of the main presentations should make it on to the TED Youtube channel so search for that if you want more on the content of the day. We will definitely be going again.
