For 25 years, Chris Anderson has been the maestro of the Spirit, of Wisdom and, sometimes, of the Gluant Blatter who Spoil. Since he took over the reins of the little but influential annual conference of “technology, entertainment and design” in 2000, he transformed it into a renowned conglomerate, although sometimes mocked, of “ideas to share” which includes a channel YouTube strongly victim of trafficking, thousands of local license gatherings called Tedx, and an archive of more than a quarter of millions of conferences, including those of Elon Musk, Monica Lewinsky and of course Bono. There are Ted podcasts, a TED radio program on NPR and an educational program called Ted-Ed.
Now he wants to give everything.
Today he is announce his intention Remove from the non -profit organization and return all the Kaboodle to anyone who shares the best idea of what to do with it. “It seems to be a crazy idea, except that everything that happened to Ted since I supervised, it happened when we dropped something,” he said, speaking exclusively to Wired. “We gave the content, and that is what made Ted Viral. We have given the brand in the form of TEDX licenses. When you give someone else control of something, you give them the motivation to do their best. There are incredible things that Ted can do in his next chapter. And so I think it’s time to try the same thing again. Let go and be amazed.
Anderson says he is not exhausted. But 25 years old is long. He will not earn money on the transaction – he is rich in any case, of the management of technological publications in the 1980s and 90s – and he has never had a salary at TED. Despite a perception that Ted has exceeded his peak, he says that the organization is in good shape. While the members sagged during the pandemic, the finances of the company have now restored. It is Most recent financial deposit Reports a profitability threshold assessment of approximately $ 100 million, and Anderson says that Ted has $ 25 million in cash reserves. He adds that the seats (most of which are sold for $ 12,500 pop) for the next one week’s conference, in the tailor-made theater of 1,500 seats in Vancouver, British Columbia, are sold, as always. Sam Altman will be in the building!
Do you want it? Check your bank account. Anderson wants someone with money to have adopted Ted at a new level. Who could be? An unfortunate defect could be a superbillionaire who prefers to hear marine guards, evolutionary anthropologists and “world souls” – all speakers at Ted 2025 – rather than hanging out in Mar -A -Lago. Instead, Anderson plans a university, one of the major philanthropic organizations, a large media, a city in search of a brain version of the Festival Friging, or even a large technical or AI company. (Imagine how former speakers will welcome their talks used to form the next version of Gemini or Copilot.) He thinks that a collective decentralized autonomous organization – a group organized by the blockchain of many Ted -Sters – can maintain the current community. This idea seems far -fetched, but the same goes for the discussions you could find on the red circle of the Ted scene. Surprise him.
“There is an opportunity to bring knowledge closer far, but with our current resources, we cannot do this solo,” he said. “I just want to open the tent and see who can bring its own version of this vision and the resources to make it real. And part of me loves the kind of fun surprise side of it. I really don’t know what’s going to happen. “”
Ted-Sters will not do it either, and that does not cause anxiety. I attend TED conferences and at the end since the 1990s, when an eccentric architect named Richard Saul Wurman organized the event in a small theater in Monterey, California. As a first participant in Ted, Anderson was so charmed that he bought the franchise and extended his audience from 550 people in a theater to millions, making the term “Ted Talk” in a cliché, for better or for the worst. When I attended, I wrote an “state of Ted” expedition that Anderson usually takes a good mood, except for the time in 2009, when I criticized it for not having much content in the economic crisis . (He answered on stage.) It will be weird to Ted without him, but it would be stranger for him to continue forever.
