TED2017 Conference, "The Future You," Kicks Off in Vancouver

Annual five-day live event to feature 90+ talks, interviews, demos and performances

Thousands to watch live in select movie theaters worldwide

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, April 24, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- TED, the nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading, opens its annual conference today in Vancouver. Themed "The Future You," TED2017 will host 1,800 attendees from 46 countries for a five-day program of 70+ speakers and performers. The first two evenings of the conference will be broadcast live to cinema audiences in the U.S. and Canada, and on a time-shifted basis internationally. Highlights of the conference will be shared in a specially curated program for global cinema audiences starting Sunday, April 30.

The TED2017 program features speakers sharing ideas in TED's signature format of short, powerful talks – from 6 to 18 minutes – as well as presentations from this year's 15 new TED Fellows and from seven Senior Fellows. As part of this year's theme, speakers will explore the most pressing questions of our time and imagine what our shared future might look like, from how we'll work to how we'll connect and interact to how we'll collectively thrive in a world full of change.

"Ideas have never mattered more, especially when you're talking about fresh thinking that can bridge barriers," said TED curator Chris Anderson. "The theme of this year's TED Conference may be The Future You, but a strong subtext emerged during planning: The Future Us. We hope to create a space for listening and reasoned discourse that can help us ask – and answer – the most thrilling and challenging questions we face as a world."

The speakers and performers selected for TED2017 will pull the camera back to help make sense of what's happening in the world. They include:

• Adam Alter, Psychologist
• Ashton Applewhite, Author and activist
• Noriko Arai, AI expert
• Dan Ariely, Behavioral economist
• Isabel Behncke Izquierdo, Primatologist
• Ingrid Betancourt, Writer, peace advocate
• Levon Bliss, Photographer
• Elizabeth Blackburn, Molecular biologist
• Jon Boogz, Movement artist
• Rutger Bregman, Historian
• David Brenner, Radiation scientist
• Richard Browning, Founder, Gravity
• Lil Buck, Dancer, choreographer, educator
• Peter Calthorpe, Urban designer
• Jacob Collier, Musician and artist
• Jack Conte, Musician, entrepreneur
• Ray Dalio, Hedge fund chair
• Devita Davison, Food activist
• Sara DeWitt, Children's media expert
• T. Morgan Dixon, Health activist
• Jorge Drexler, Musician, poet
• Cynthia Erivo, Actor, performer
• Emily Esfahani Smith, Author
• Noah Feldman, Constitutional law scholar
• Tim Ferriss, Human guinea pig, author
• Martin Ford, Futurist
• Found Sound Nation, Musical collective
• Laura Galante, Cyberspace analyst
• Vanessa Garrison, Health activist
• Atul Gawande, Surgeon, journalist
• Lisa Genova, Neuroscientist, novelist
• Gabriela González, Astrophysicist
• Tom Gruber, AI developer
• Ted Halstead, Policy entrepreneur, climate expert, author
• Robin Hanson, Economist, social scientist
• Tristan Harris, Design thinker
• Anna Heringer, Architect
• Danny Hillis, Computer theorist
• Anab Jain, Futurist, designer
• Titus Kaphar, Artist
• Garry Kasparov, Grandmaster, analyst
• Shah Rukh Khan, Actor, producer, activist
• Grace Kim, Architect
• Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank Group
• Gayle King, Journalist
• Karoliina Korppoo, Game designer
• Tim Kruger, Geoengineering researcher
• Anne Lamott, Novelist, essayist
• Michael Patrick Lynch, Philosopher
• Anne Madden, Microbial researcher
• Kate Marvel, Climate scientist
• David Miliband, Refugee advocate
• Luma Mufleh, Refugee activist
• Elon Musk, Serial entrepreneur
• Radhika Nagpal, Robotics engineer
• Chuck Nice, Comedian, science fan
• Cathy O'Neil, Mathematician, data scientist
• OK Go, Band
• Mehdi Ordikhani-Seyedlar, Neuroscientist
• Raj Panjabi, Physician and 2017 TED Prize winner
• Anika Paulson, Student, musician
• Helen Pearson, Science journalist, editor and author
• Susan Pinker, Psychologist, columnist, author
• Kristin Poinar, Glaciologist
• Marc Raibert, Roboticist
• Jorge Ramos, Journalist, news anchor
• Joseph Redmon, Computer scientist
• Todd Reichert, Aerospace engineer
• Joshua Roman, Cellist
• Anthony D. Romero, Attorney, public-interest activist
• Anna Rosling Rônnlund, Co-founder of Gapminder
• Daan Roosegaarde, Artist
• Stuart Russell, AI expert
• Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, Religious leader
• Robert Sapolsky, Neuroscientist, primatologist, writer
• Tomás Saraceno, Artist
• Jeffrey Schnapp, Cultural historian
• Laolu Senbanjo, Artist, musician, lawyer, activist
• Anil Seth, Cognitive scientist
• Mariano Sigman, Neuroscientist
• Julia Sweeney, Actor, comedian, playwright
• David Titley, Meteorologist
• Jun Wang, Genomics researcher
• David Whyte, Poet, author
• Serena Williams, Athlete
• Guy Winch, Psychologist, author
• Huang Yi, Choreographer, dancer, inventor
• Helen Zaltzman, Podcaster
• Manoush Zomorodi, Tech podcaster

As part of TED's ongoing effort to spread ideas to new and relevant audiences, the TED2017 experience will extend well beyond the Vancouver Convention Centre:

• The first two nights of the conference will be broadcast live to participating U.S. and Canadian cinemas on April 24 and April 25 respectively, with a best-of-TED highlights program featuring speakers like Elon Musk in cinemas beginning Sunday, April 30. International audiences in 18 other countries will be able to watch from select cinemas, as well. Theater locations, timing and ticket purchase information can be found at TEDCinema.com.
• For the first time, TED will offer a session of Spanish-language TED Talks, which will be streamed live for free on TED's website and on the TED en Español Facebook page Tuesday, April 25, from 2:15 pm to 4:00 pm PT. Titled "Conexión y sentido," or "Connection and meaning," the session will feature six speakers from a range of backgrounds and disciplines. It kicks off TED's sweeping TED en Español initiative, an all-Spanish effort to mine new sources of ideas and engage previously untapped audiences.
• Anyone tuning in to TED on Facebook during the conference will have the chance to watch Facebook Live interviews with speakers and attendees on topics ranging from social justice to AI to climate change and more.
• As always, TED will offer a free livestream of the entire conference online to accredited Vancouver-area secondary schools, universities, libraries, community centres and NGOs. Organizations may apply at go.ted.com/TEDLiveVancouver.

Opening TED up to audiences around the world is foundational to TED's mission of spreading ideas. What was once a closed-door conference devoted to Technology, Entertainment and Design has become a global platform for spreading ideas across a wide variety of disciplines. Founded in 1984, the first TED conferences were held in Monterey, California. In 2006, TED experimented with putting TED Talk videos online for free – a decision that opened the doors to a radically new model for sharing ideas: today there are more than 2,400 TED Talks available for free on TED.com, which are viewed about a billion times a year. Thanks to the support of thousands of volunteer translators, there are more than 110,000 published translations of TED Talks in 114 languages. TEDx, the licensing program that allows communities to produce independently organized TED events, has seen 21,500 events held worldwide.

A number of exciting brands and companies have partnered with TED2017 to share ideas and foster an atmosphere of innovation. This year's partners include: Altair, BMW i, The Boston Consulting Group, Delta Air Lines, Walt Disney Imagineering, EverFi, GLG (Gerson Lehrman Group), Google, IBM, Infosys, Logitech, lululemon, Marriott Hotels, Omidyar Network, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Skoll Foundation, Steelcase, Target, Tommy Hilfiger, Toyota, The Future Project, UPS, Westpac Banking Group, WorkLounge, and Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany. 

Follow TED2017 on the TED blog, Facebook (www.facebook.com/TED), Twitter (@TEDTalks), Instagram (@TED), LinkedIn and Snapchat (@tedtalkshq). The official hashtag of the event is #TED2017.

About TED

TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading, usually in the form of short, powerful talks delivered by today's leading thinkers and doers. Many of these talks are given at TED's annual gathering in Vancouver, Canada, its TEDWomen and TEDGlobal conferences, and at thousands of independently organized TEDx events around the world, then made available, free, on TED.com and other channels.

TED's open and free initiatives for spreading ideas include TED.com, where new TED Talk videos are posted daily; TEDx, which provides licenses to thousands of individuals and groups who host local, self-organized TED-style events around the world; the TED Fellows program, which selects innovators from around the globe to amplify the impact of their remarkable projects and activities; The Open Translation Project, which provides subtitles and interactive transcripts as well as translations from thousands of volunteers worldwide; the educational initiative TED-Ed; and the annual million-dollar TED Prize, which funds exceptional individuals with a "wish," or idea, to create change in the world.

Contact: Margaret Sullivan, [email protected], +1 (646) 519-1350

SOURCE TED