The high\u002Dpowered TED Talks conference is among the early major meetings to return in full force to the Vancouver Convention Centre, opening Sunday for a five\u002Dday experience that top boss Chris Anderson said has been hard to replicate online.
The TED organization kept up an online presence during the pandemic, like so many organizations that adopted “virtual” events, but Anderson said not having an in-person event has had “a huge impact.”
“You can feel it in those talks, you can feel that audience energy,” Anderson said, and that energy is increasingly important for an organization branching out more and more into philanthropic influence. This year’s event will see 1,700 TED delegates take over the Vancouver Convention Centre, with satellite events around the city, with attendees including scientists, artists and more than a few billionaires.
This year’s conference is organized under the theme “a new era,” which refers to the need to grapple with new orders in the fields of post-pandemic medicine, accelerating advances in technology and world affairs, Anderson said.