TEDCity2.0 Day Celebrates the City of the Future

NEW YORK, Sept. 20, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- TED hosts TEDCity2.0 Day today, an event held at The TimesCenter featuring talks by some of the world's leading urbanists, designers and artists about the future of the world's cities. The TEDCity2.0 Day speaker program, curated by TED and hosted in partnership with the Ford Foundation, offers talks about urban ingenuity and interdependence from across the globe. More than 135 simultaneous TEDxCity2.0 events around the world will simulcast those speakers.

TED, which offers its annual TED Prize to an outstanding individual with a world-changing idea, parted with tradition in 2012 to reward the Prize to an idea instead – one on which our planet's future depends: the City 2.0. TED divvied the $100,000 prize into ten grants and distributed them to leaders who are building and conceptualizing the globe's changing cities.

"When we gave the TED Prize to the City 2.0, we knew it would take minds from around the globe to dream, collaborate and build," said TED Curator Chris Anderson. "We're thrilled to convene some of the best thinkers, leaders, architects and designers to share stories of innovation that could have a remarkable impact on shaping the world's growing urban centers."

The program includes several of the 2012 City 2.0 Award winners, who tackle themes central to the cities of the future: art, education, food, health, housing, play, public space, and safety. Their talks will be shared via a simulcast to the 138 TEDxCity2.0 events around the globe hosted by local organizers. Each of these community events, held in cities as far and wide as Haiti, Mexico, China, Uganda and Egypt, will feature locally curated speakers.

"Our world's cities represent the best chance to positively shape the lives of billions in the years ahead, but we must act now to build them as cities committed to justice and shared prosperity," said Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation. "We need creative solutions and inclusive urban spaces to advance social justice and transform lives."

Select talks from the main event will invite audience members and simulcast viewers to respond to a call to action and customize it for their local context. Alternatively, they'll be encouraged to mobilize with their community in a day of action around a local urban issue. 

The TEDCity2.0 Day lineup features:

• Poverty professor Ananya Roy
• Peace strategist Mohamed Ali
• Entrepreneur Eric Liu
• Harassment avenger Emily May
• Mayor Kasim Reed
• Bklyn Beast pedestrian freestylers Shem Rajoon, Luciano Acuna Jr., and Masi James
• Walkability advocate Jeff Speck
• Aural artist Jason Sweeney
• Civic technologist Catherine Bracy of "Code for America"
• Radical professor Dennis Dalton
• Urban bard Felice Belle
• Visionary architect Chris Downey
• Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan
• Robin Nagle, an anthropologist in residence at the NYC Dept. of Sanitation
• Street performers John Pita and Avi Snow of City of the Sun
• Place maker Toni Griffin, an urban planner working to make cities more just
• Shaun Donovan, the U.S. Secretary of Housing & Urban Development
• Sustainability guru Lance Hosey
• Transportation evangelist Enrique Penalosa
• Photographer Iwan Baan
• Impact designer Alan Ricks
• Burkina Faso architect Diebedo Francis Kere
• Writer Joshunda Sanders

Michelin has partnered with TEDCity2.0 Day to bring the event to life.

About TED
TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. Started as a four-day conference in California almost 30 years ago, TED has grown to support those world-changing ideas with multiple initiatives. The two annual TED Conferences invite the world's leading thinkers and doers to speak for 18 minutes or less on a diverse mix of topics. Many of these talks are then made available, free, at TED.com. TED speakers have included Bill Gates, Jane Goodall, Elizabeth Gilbert, Sir Richard Branson, Nandan Nilekani, Philippe Starck, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Isabel Allende and former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown. The TED2014 Conference will take place next spring in Vancouver, British Columbia, along with the TEDActive simulcast in neighboring Whistler.

TED's media initiatives include TED.com, where new TED Talks are posted daily; the Open Translation Project, which provides subtitles and interactive transcripts as well as translations from volunteers worldwide; the educational initiative TED-Ed; and TEDBooks, short e-books on powerful ideas. TED has established the annual TED Prize, where exceptional individuals with a wish to change the world get help translating their wishes into action; TEDx, which supports individuals or groups in hosting local, self-organized TED-style events around the world; and the TED Fellows program, helping world-changing innovators from around the globe to amplify the impact of their remarkable projects and activities.

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CONTACT: Margaret Sullivan, [email protected], 646-519-1350

SOURCE TED