So, I've watched TED talks online for years. I'm sure you're familiar with TED—a nonprofit devoted to "Ideas Worth Spreading." It started out over 20 years ago as a conference bringing together people from the worlds of technology, entertainment and design and now has spread beyond that. TED's curated talks range from 3-18 minutes and are what I like to call my free, adult, continuing education resource. I was fortunate enough to attend the conference in person this year in Long Beach, CA and here were the highlights of the week for me:
 
My Favorite Talks: By far the best talk of the week and best TED talk I've ever seen was given by death penalty lawyer and MacArthur "genius" award winner, Bryan Stevenson, on the power of identity. If the sustained standing ovation and $1.12 million dollars raised for his work from audience members (in about 10 minutes!!) moved by his legal advocacy (through Equal Justice Initiative) weren’t enough to show him the love, I don’t know what else would have. Other terrific talks included Susan Cain’s on introverts and Brene Brown’s on vulnerability and shame. Brene talked about the 4 million views her TEDx talk in Houston received which led me to watch that initial talk. Wow! Finally, in a battle of competing views on our planet’s future, watch first Paul Gilding’s more glass-half empty predictions (“the earth is full”) and then futurist Peter Diamandis’ more generous view (“abundance is our future”).

New at TED: This year, for the first time, the TED prize wasn’t awarded to an individual but rather to an idea—the power of cities/The City 2.0. In addition, as it prepares to roll out a new initiative, TED-Ed, one whole conference session was devoted to the classroom. Top teachers and others committed to education were able to strut their stuff in front of the audience and 300 local students. It was an honor watching these master teachers at work including science evangelist, Ainissa Ramirez , who told the students: “Fail your way to the answer. Scientists do this all the time and they call it data!” and sexuality educator and high school tearcher, Al Vernacchio, who wants to reframe the way we talk about sex away from baseball metaphors to ones that relate to pizza (hilarious!).
 
Stellar People-Watching: TED attracts a really interesting array of folks. I’m not too proud to admit that I enjoyed my glimpses of the rich and famous walking by including Vice President Gore, Cameron Diaz, Sandra Day O’Connor, Rick Fox (I’m not a basketball person but liked him in The Game, Body of Evidence, and Ugly Betty, and Shonda Rhimes (she’s awesome! I love Grey’s Anatomy and The Practice and can’t wait to see her new show Scandal).
 
Very cool and unusual performers: I stick pretty much to old-school rap and hip-hop, but I totally enjoyed bhangra funk group, Red Baraat, vocalist and beatboxer, Reggie Watts, and clawhammer bango player and singer, Abigail Washburn who combines American folk music with far-flung sounds including Chinese lyrics!
 
Echoing Green Fellows are Everywhere!: As always, it’s a highlight to see and spend time with members of the Echoing Green community. A number of our social entrepreneurs are TED Fellows including Esra’a Al Shafei, Jane Chen and Pete Haas (congratulations!). It was great to have lunch with serial social entrepreneur and EG Fellow, Meredith Blake (CEO, Cause & Affect). And Van Jones is a man on the move; it was great to see him only if in passing!!

What were your favorite moments?