An idea-sharing platform - Bruno Giussani at TEDxParis

Bruno Giussani, Director of TED Europe, introduces the TEDx program.

Thank you, David.
Good Morning!

I'm going to give you

some context for what is going on here.

TEDx is one of our programs at TED;

You may know some of the others,

the TED.com website,
TED and TEDGlobal annual conferences,

the fellowship,
the videos subtitled into 80 languages,

the TED Prize, which actually in 2011

went to a French artist, JR,

and many more.
They all converge into the intent

of creating a platform to share ideas.

That's what TED does.

That's our everyday job.

To develop a way,

using all the channels available

to identify and share good ideas.

TEDx is a very important part of it.

The idea is to allow anyone
within the TED community

to create their own local, independent,

TED-like event,

to bring TED into their community,

to bring their community into TED.

The rules of the game are very simple.

You must apply for a license,

the license is free,
it comes with a series of basic rules

about how to structure a program,
how to choose the speakers,

and that kind of things.

But beyond that, we at TED,
play no part whatsoever

in the creation of what you have experienced

and what you are experiencing here today,
which is entirely

to be credited to the effort,
the involvement,

the passion, the ideas
of the TEDxParis team.

By the way, I think they did a great job

and they deserve a big round of applause.

(Applause)

So we lauched the TEDx project

just 22 months ago.

And when we started, we thought

that in the first year, we might perhaps get

around thirty TEDx events around the world.

That was an exciting prospect!

But never has a projection been so wrong.

Since then, there have been 1200 events

in 90 countries, in more than 30 languages,

big and small events,

very ambitious, less ambitious, in English,
in local languages, in both,

and it doesn't matter, because what matters
is that they are really carried out by the community,

by the passion in the community, by the ideas

and the involvement of those like you
belonging to the TED community.

These events happened in theaters,

in town halls, in conference centers,

in universities, in schools, in a meadow,
in the shade of the Great Wall of China,

at NATO, sorry, at NASA, at the Pentagone,

in the European Parliament building.

There's a photo of NASA,
I think, in this somewhere.

Also, allow me to take you
on a quick round-the-world tour,

at Kibera too,
Patrick told you about it earlier.

The biggest slum in Africa,
where 3 TEDx have already taken place,

the first one was in 2009.

Or in Fatepur, a city --
that's one of the pictures of TEDx Kibera --

at Fatepur, a city in Rajasthan in India,

where a young Muslim woman fought

against much local resistance

to be able to create her own TEDx.

1000 people took part in this event.

That's her here introducing the speakers.

Or in Jerusalem, where two women,

a Palestinian and an Israeli
who didn't know each other and met at TED,

and when they met, they realised

that they were each other's contact
on the other side.

They decided to create a conference
gathering women from all sides,

and where speakers were only women:

Israelis, Arab-Israelis,

Palestinians and Bedouins
who animated that conference.

Or again in the middle of Amazonia,

on a floating hotel,

with participants from all the Amazonian countries.

And finally, unless I'm mistaken,
in 60 towns at the same time,

quite recently, last November 20th,

World Youth Day with 60 TEDx organizers

who all joined together to create
events around the theme

with young people in the audience and on stage.

So every day we are surprised

and amazed by the creativity and the involvement

coming from that TEDx community.

Everyday some new TEDx are launched,

they really are a phenomenon
getting bigger and spreading,

there are already hundreds
planned in the coming months

they really depend on the involvement
and passion of people like the TEDx team

but also of people like you in the audience,

who are part of this community.

And for that, I thank you!

Thank you very much.

(Applause)