If you’ve got six grand burning a hole in your pocket, you can get a TED membership and attend their annual conference in person. What makes TED so awesome is that they make those high-end presentations available online for free nintey-nine. I recently pigged out on their big idea buffet, and here are some of my favorite talks:
Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor describes her own stroke.
Dan Gilbert on happiness. Fascinating.
I’m a TED junkie too. I hadn’t seen Dan Gilbert, although I recall him describing these remarkable experiments (and some discomfort about the notion of manufactured happiness) when he was pimping his book on NPR.
The others were among my favorites too. Be sure to look up Gladwell’s hilarious story on This American Life too: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=348
Another highlight of TED is Ken Robinson: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html
Kind of surprised you can get there for just six grand… I assumed it was invitation only.
It used to be invitation only. They changed it in 2007, I think.