TED Announces More Than 40 Corporate and Educational Sponsors for Upcoming TED2010 and TEDActive Conferences

NEW YORK, Jan. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- More than 40 leading companies, research institutions and foundations have partnered with TED to sponsor next month's TED2010 and TEDActive conferences. It's a broad cross-section of business and service organizations who support TED's mission of ideas worth spreading.

"The partners for TED2010 and TEDActive are fulfilling a vital role as TED develops programs to serve the global community, connecting people, ideas and resources," said Ronda Carnegie, Global Partnerships Director for TED.

The TED2010 and TEDActive conferences, happening February 9-13 in California, present a tightly curated four-day program of talks by the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers from a variety of disciplines. Connection and conversation are encouraged through intimate social spaces, luncheon discussion panels and activities.

TED2010 will be held at the Long Beach Performing Arts Center, in Long Beach, CA, home to the TED conference for the second year.  Speakers at TED2010 will be simulcast at the TEDActive conference, held concurrently at the Riviera Resort & Spa, in Palm Springs, CA, where attendees will also take part in exclusive workshops, performances and immersive, experiential activities. Attendees at both conferences will receive TED's new online opt-in gift bag.

For this year's TED2010 conference, TED created nine themed "social spaces" designed to help attendees and speakers extend and deepen conversation and collaboration. The social spaces are situated throughout the theater's lobby and outdoor plaza, with creative support from many of this year's sponsors.

TED2010's social spaces include The Dome, for discussion of technology; The Global Village, for TED Fellows, world-oriented thinkers and entrepreneurs; The Eco Village, for green and eco-visionaries; The Hub, a hyperconnected zone for bloggers, tweeters and communicators; The Imaginarium, where attendees can expand and record thoughts and conversations sparked by TED sessions; The Book Cafe, featuring the TED Bookstore, with speaker and author book signings; The Intersection, for core members of the TED community, including TEDx hosts, TED translators, TEDPrize heroes, with a live video link to the TEDActive conference in Palm Springs; The Playroom, with a variety of entertainment technology, including 3D cinema and a Director's Feed showing live feeds from TED's seven-camera shoot; The Summit, private meeting rooms that TEDsters can book through a concierge.

Other TED2010 innovations this year include Panel Lunch Discussions, bringing speakers and attendees together to focus on national and international issues of rising importance, including solar energy, health care for aging Americans, and the global financial crisis.

This year, TEDActive will bring together some 500 members of the global TED community in Palm Springs, including the next generation of thought leaders, to take part in the four-day program of talks, live music, games, art exhibits and outdoor events that take advantage of the high-desert setting.

For this year's TEDActive, sponsors have worked with TED to develop novel experiences and activities, including a 5,000-square-foot Innovation Lounge that will explore the intersection of humans and technology; a Creativity Lounge where attendees can redesign off-the-shelf products in an interactive exhibit; and the production of a music recording and music video.

About TED

TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. Started as a four-day conference in California 25 years ago, TED has grown to support those world-changing ideas with multiple initiatives. The annual TED Conference invites the world's leading thinkers and doers to speak for 18 minutes. Their talks are then made available, free, at TED.com. TED speakers have included Bill Gates, Al Gore, Jane Goodall, Elizabeth Gilbert, Sir Richard Branson, Nandan Nilekani, Philippe Starck, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Isabel Allende and UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown. The annual TED Conference takes place in Long Beach, California, with simulcast in Palm Springs; TEDGlobal is held each year in Oxford, UK. TED's media initiatives include TED.com, where new TEDTalks are posted daily, and the Open Translation Project, which provides subtitles and interactive transcripts as well as the ability for any TEDTalk to be translated by volunteers worldwide. TED has established the annual TED Prize, where exceptional individuals with a wish to change the world are given the opportunity to put their wishes into action; TEDx, which offers individuals or groups a way to host local, self-organized events around the world, and the TED Fellows program, helping world-changing innovators from around the globe to become part of the TED community and, with its help, amplify the impact of their remarkable projects and activities.

Follow TED on Twitter at twitter.com/TEDTalks, or on Facebook at facebook.com/TED  

TED2010, "What the World Needs Now," will be held Feb. 9–13, 2010, in Long Beach, California, with TEDActive, a simulcast conference of TED2010, in Palm Springs, California. TEDGlobal 2010, "And Now the Good News," will be held July 13-16, 2010, in Oxford, UK. TED2011, "The Rediscovery of Wonder," will be held February 21-25, 2011, in Long Beach, California, with the TEDActive simulcast in Palm Springs, California

SOURCE TED Conferences