TEDxIC

This weekend Imperial College hosted the annual Imperial College TEDx conference. I don't know how many of you know the TED talks, but they are quite famous and really, really interesting.

For those of you who are new to this concept: TED (Technology Entertainment Design) is a series of conferences with the slogan "ideas worth spreading". Even though it has gained a lot of fame over the last years, probably due to the easy propagation over the internet (through Youtube and their web-site), TED has been around for a while (the first conference being held in 1984 in California featuring a demonstration of the first macintosh computer). And as it usually is, these events are impossible to get access to. To be part of the audience you have to be INVITED by TED and then pay a ticket that usually costs around 6000 USD. This is where TEDx comes in handy for the rest of us mortals (for those of you who had forgotten about the little x at the beginning and were wondering how the hell I got in). TEDx are independently organised events from TED, which basically means that any institution that gets a licence from them can host them. And Imperial happens to have one. 

One of the main characteristics of TED/TEDx speakers is their excellence in giving a talk and this was the case at TEDx Imperial College, too. Despite the fact that we did not get to see the worlds macintosh premiere, the speakers were really good and covered a variety of topics ranging from bottom-up social change to emotional artificial intelligence. 

I recommend that you check out some other talks from this series, as they are quite educative and also mostly very interesting!