TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. The annual conference now brings together the world's most fascinating thinkes and doers. The first TED conference in 1984 had demos of the Apple Macintosh and Sony compact discs, and former speakers include Bill Gates, Norman Foster, Al Goore, Edward Tufte and Bono.
TEDTalks began as an attempt to share what happens at TED with the world, and talks were released online. They rapidly attracted a global audience in the millions.
15m sees TED.com as a never-ending dream conference with mindblowing insights from brilliant people. The themes and speaker backgrounds vary, but the insights are often universal and provide valuable perspectives on our work and play.
Listen to the different perspectives presented by Malcolm Gladwell and Barry Schwartz and see for yourself: