TEDGlobal Conference Brings Innovation to Oxford in July

This year's conference took place in February, and its roster lists writers and inventors, economists and biologists, a runner, a farmer, and a tree researcher, amongst others. Bill Gates spoke about his foundation. MIT researcher Pattie Maes presented her futuristic "Sixth Sense", a tiny portable computer whose object recognition technology makes even the iPhone G3 S seem like an inconvenience. And musicians Herbie Hancock and Regina Spektor performed interludes.

About 20 years after the launch of TED came the bi-annual TEDGlobal, the Long Beach conference's international twin. It happens this summer, July 21-24 in Oxford, U.K. and will host, amongst the writers and inventors, an arctic swimmer, a former child-soldier-turned-rap-star, and an aphorism expert (read: @140Boss). Themed "The Substance of Things Not Seen," the conference will explore such topics as math, motivation, faith, air, the brain and the mind, solar power and the power of music. Imogen Heap is in the line-up this time around. This summer will mark the beginning of the conference's annual occurrence.

While registration fees for TED conferences are steep (this year's TEDGlobal costs $4,500 per person), attendance is capped at 1,000 and admission is competitive. The organization has made a great effort to give universal access to its inspiring program by posting videos of the best speeches to the TED website. With the mantra "Ideas Worth Spreading," TED releases the videos under a Creative Commons license and happily encourages viewers to share and post these TEDTalks. Their website boasts "the goal of giving everyone on-demand access to the world's most inspiring voices," and with subtitles available in 50 languages, the TED video archive is a gold-mine of footage providing the entire world with fresh appreciation for the capacity of the human imagination.

Related links:
TED.com
TEDGlobal's official site
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