Representing TEDx: Lara Stein at TEDxSydney

Global TEDx Director, Producer, Performer, Lara Stein shares how TEDx has emerged, evolved and expanded all over the world. She also urges you to host your TEDx event to reach out into your community.

(Applause)

Thank you, Remo.

That was probably more information
than you needed.

Yes, I did fly in this morning and
it's fantastic to be here.

I've always wanted to come to Sydney, and
it took Remo and TEDx to get me here.

So, thank you Remo.

We launched this little experiment at TED
just over a year ago called TEDx

where x equals
independently organized events.

And it gives anybody, anywhere in the world
the opportunity to host a TED-like event.

Now, the idea for TEDx came
from a number of different places.

Up until about 4 years ago,

TED was a small exclusive conference
that very few people had been to.

Remo had been.
He'd been coming to for 20 years.

But, very few people
had been to the TED conference.

And 4 years ago, we put
TED Talks online for free.

And over 250 million people
have seen TED talks to date,

and this has really transformed
the TED brand.

As a result, more and more people
were coming up to us and requesting

if they could host an offical TED confernce
in their city or country,

and the TED team is a tiny team
and this idea was very hard to scale,

and, finally, we at TED
really do believe

that sometimes it's better
to view TED talks in a group situation

where you can have
a conversation around them

rather than in a solitary way
in front of your computer.

So, it was really
the convergence of these ideas

out of which
the TEDx concept emerged.

So, as I said TEDx launched
about a year ago, just over a year ago,

I just wanted to paint a brief picture
of what's transpired over the last year.

We've had about
500 TEDx events worldwide.

We have over 500 more
planned for this year.

About a hundred of those have been
on university campuses, and

another hundred-plus planned
on university campuses for this year.

We've had about 40 TEDx events
that will be oriented towards kids

between now
and the end of this year.

And, these events have differed greatly
in size, shape and format.

We have had everything
from a small little TEDx event

that happened in one of the largest
shanty towns in the world, TEDxKibera

where the organizer
put a sheet on the wall

and projected some TED talks and
invited some speakers in from the local community.

To a series of very ambitious events
like TEDxSydney today,

which could almost be a day at TED.

To an event that I actually
just came from two days ago

that happened
under the Great Wall of China

and in this ancient setting under the stars,
and this was truly remarkable.

To an event that's happening
later this year on November 20th

and we just announced that at TEDxTokyo,
we going to have a TEDxYouth day

where a whole series of TEDx events
will happen over the span of 24 hours

that are geared for and towards
children and youth.

And so people come,
and they come to TEDx

and they hear these amazing speakers
and they have remarkable conversations,

and they often say to me
"Now what?"

And, what I'd love to encourage you all to do
is go back into your communities,

into under-privileged
neighborhoods,

into schools and
host your own little TEDx events.

They don't have to be as ambitious as this,
they don't have to have live speakers,

You can just show some TED talks,
inspire some people,

have a conversation around them,
and help us spread ideas.

And so, in closing, it has been
an amazing journey, the last few months.

And we at TED are awed and inspired
by it and we're not sure where it is going,

but we believe
it will be transformative

and it'll be thanks to you,
TEDxSydney community,

and other communities around the world
that I hope make it so.

So, in closing, I just wanted to say.
I've known Remo for 20 years,

he's been coming
to TED for 20 years.

And I was really excited when he said
he'd sign on to do this TEDxSydney.

I just found out from the forum, that
there is going to be another one next year.

So, next year I promise to come back
for more than 24 hours.

Thank you.

(Applause)