TEDGlobal 2012

All bets are off as to what openness and collaboration in an ultra-connected world will mean for human potential. Traditional top-down models of organization no longer reflect reality. Social capital and influence are becoming stronger currencies than hierarchy and formal power. New, collaborative ways of creating meaning and things are developing at fast pace. Only one thing appears certain: Secrecy is no longer bankable: impact is. The future will be built on great ideas, and for that, great ideas need to circulate freely, broadly and openly.

Those are some of the threads that will inform our work in preparing the TEDGlobal 2012 program. We will hear from those who are provoking and embracing these changes. The conference will feature about 70 speakers over four days. We will explore a deliberately eclectic mix of topics. Here a few that are in our mind:
-- the truth about talent
-- the shaping of Western and Eastern thought
-- new ways to think about and produce energy
-- new materials and design
-- the real impacts of interconnectivity
-- how to make technology more human
-- how to reshape the global system
-- the links between fear and imagination
-- the meaning of consciousness
-- new organizational model
-- cutting-edge scientific explorations
-- what we need to un-learn
-- radical thinking about conflict resolution
-- life past 100
-- new approaches to climate change
-- courageous acts