More Canadiana at TED 2014

The sun finally shone in Vancouver today, the mountains finally started to peek out from the clouds, and Canadians continued to do us proud.  In the first All Star Session, Wade Davis kicked off with an eloquent description of what it means to be Canadian, better than the hilarious I am Canadian beer commercial which ran the first day.

Later in the session, Moshe Safdie described his philosophy of architecture, starting with his triumph of Habitat for the Montreal Olympics. He continues his passion for integrating openness and gardens even as he builds dense urban spaces. He showed some of his recent work, including fantastic designs for China and Singapore. I loved this example of of a mixed residential project in Qinhuangdao, China, which I found on his web site. Safdie said that one of the design guidelines was that each apartment had to receive a minimum of 3 hours of natural sunlight, even at the winter solstice. Here's the design.

TED in Canada

Well, I finally made it to TED after yesterday's fiasco at the airport. What a pleasure to arrive at Vancouver's spectacularly beautiful airport. Made me proud as a Canadian that all these TEDsters would be greeted with this beauty, and grateful their first impression of Canada didn't come from the Toronto airport.


The traditional TED banners on the street outside the convention centre have a maple leaf on them - no coincidence that TED's colours are red?

The main theatre is magnificent. I took a peak this afternoon and was in awe.  Specially architected for TED, the entire edifice was built in just a week. It feels very Canadian and very TED.  I heard people mentioning it felt more like the intimacy of Monterey (original home of TED) than Long Beach (where it was held for the last several years). As Chris Anderson said, having a totally empty space was both intimidating and inspiring, and the architects did a beautiful job.  I don't have a camera to give a full panoramic view, but here is the lovely space from several angles. There are comfortable and diverse seating areas all around, with a real feeling of openness and intimacy.

The entire space is built of wood, as you can see from this shot of the stairs, and you can smell the fresh wood! The interior stairs are equally interesting, covered in some sort of soft spongy carpeting that looks, and feels, like a forest floor.


The infamous TED clock that so thoroughly intimidates speakers is there, and bigger than ever. See it there reading 00 under the big screen?

Canadiana continued as Chris Hadfield earned a standing ovation with his lyrical description of the sense of wonder and fulfilment as he achieved his childhood dream of going into space, his fear when he went blind in one eye (and then two) on a space walk and  overcoming that fear because of training and relentless practice. That Canadian flag on his space suit was pretty special to Canadians in the audience, I'm sure.

He ended with a snippet of the Bowie song he made famous on YouTube here.

The decor theme for the party was very Canadian too.

The New TED Stage

For me, one of the attractions of the TED 2014 conference was its location in Vancouver, on a stage specially constructed to optimize presentation of talks.   The designer David Rockwell gave an overview of the new stage on the Charlie Rose show here starting at 13:15.

One of (many) ways that Long Beach was less enjoyable than Monterey as the locale for TED was that the seats were uncomfortable.  You may think this is a frivolous criticism, but just try sitting from 8:30-6:30 for days on end.  I wasn't the only one who complained about the seating.

TED has always tried to encourage people to sit outside the main hall, watching the speakers on HD video while lounging on soft seating and a variety of other seating.  I for one never took advantage of that seating - there's an electricity in sitting in the main hall where speakers are live.  And it was a particular thrill when I sat in the onstage seating for one session.  It seems that the new design aims to combine a variety of seating right within the main hall.  I look forward to trying it out.  :-)

TED Moves to Vancouver

There was blockbuster news this week with the announcement of TED's move to Vancouver with TED Active in Whistler, at least for the next two years.  The choice of Vancouver is not all that surprising when you think about it.  Chris Anderson, TED's owner and curator, has a place in Whistler, so he's clearly familiar with the area.  Also, TED's logistics are managed by Vancouver-based Procreative Design Works, owned by sisters Janet and Katherine McCartney.

Of course, there is more behind it than convenience.  At the 2012 conference, there was quite a buzz of discontent: the conference was too big, it was getting somewhat impersonal, the seats were dreadfully uncomfortable (when the program run 8:30-6:30 for four days and you've paid that much to be there, a back ache is really irritating), the conference was dividing into two classes of citizens, those who'd paid the regular (stiff) price, and patrons, who'd paid double and got in before the doors opened, and got all the best seats.  In short, old-timers who'd been to Monterey were yearning for the old locale.  And for the first time in my memory, the 2013 conference was not sold out by the time the 2012 conference got under way.  Because you usually have to confirm for the next conference before the previous one begins, it creates a long lag time for feedback about abating demand for the TED team.

Clearly, on the 30th anniversary next year, TED is working to overcome that softening of demand.  The conference will have 200 fewer paid attendees, addressing one of the currents of discontent and incidentally creating fewer seats to fill.

Vancouver is well known as one of the most beautiful cities in the world and the convention centre, as you can see on the right, is new and gorgeous.  Moreover, they're building (with support from Vancouver apparently) a custom-designed-for-talk theatre to "maximize the impact of talks, permitting multiple configurations for sitting, listening and connecting with the speaker".  This could add destination pizazz.  Long Beach is not exactly gorgeous as Monterey was.  Chris says they're also inviting back the 100 best TED speakers of all time, which sounds pretty darned exciting.  Apparently we're going to be able to vote for who those 100 are.  I skipped TED 2013, but I think I'll be back for 2014.  I wonder how many others will be like me.

This is considered a major coup for Vancouver, as described in this Vancouver Sun article.  A senior Vice President of Canadian Tourism was summoned to Vancouver to participate in the talks and the agreement was kept under tight wraps until announcement day.   The deal is for two years.  I'm sure  the city will be fighting to keep the conference there beyond the two years.