TED Conference Ends

UPDATE: There are a bunch of great photos of TED here and here.

TED ended today and I can say with all certainty it was one of the most incredible experiences of my life. To imagine what TED is like picture a summer camp filled with some of the most successful and smart people in the tech and design industry. At most conferences you meet a few people, exchange business cards but never get to really know anyone all that well. TED is different for two reasons. First there are only 1,000 people and almost everyone was there all day every day. What this did was made it so in between sessions and at the night parties you were hanging out with the same people, over and over again for 4 days straight. You end up running into the same people many times and talking about different thing, becoming real friends with everyone there. The second reason is there is no hierarchy. There is one big party every night, there are no areas where some people go and others don't. This gets the start ups and the successful billionaires in the same room making friends with one and other, something everyone benefits from it.

This year TED gave away 3 incredible "TED prizes" to people who are helping make the world a better place. One of the winners was Bono from the band U2, he appeared on stage in 3D via satellite and gave one of the most passionate, emotional, and persuasive talks on how we need to help Africa come out of its current health crisis. As a winner he got to make 3 wishes that the TED attendees are going to make come true, but I will save the details of those for another post.

I continued to meet some incredible people including Jeff Bezos (the CEO and founder of Amazon.com), David Blaine (The most amazing street magician in the world), Larry Page and Sergey Brin (founders of Google), Scott McClound (author of Understanding Comics) and many many more. I love learning from experts with experience, they are the best kind of teachers in the world. TED was filled with these teachers and I learned an unmeasurable amount of things. I can't wait till next year.