TED: TED inspires us to do some crazy things

Posted by Scott on 23. October 2008 15:49

Here is my crazy thing. When starting a new endeavor you have to think about it a lot.  You have to get in touch with like minded folks, come up with goals and a schedule, think of who else can help out with it and just over all put a lot of thought into it.  I stated my endeavor in an earlier post and what I wanted to do with it.

In starting TED here in the South East region of the United States, I wanted a place where intellectuals could come together and collaborate, spread their ideas, get opinions on them and maybe push them out into other communities of the world/states.  In the 1920's there were groups and organizations almost like think tanks that would get together and discuss the new ideas of the next coming years.  The gentlemen were mostly thinkers and not actually doers.  They were the intellectuals, not the executers. What I am trying to do is bring both the thinker and the doer together and harmonize them into one location.  They then will discuss the new ideas of the coming ages and work to make it a better place.  Thats what I want to happen.  Will it actually work?  Probably not, but I am making a go at it.

If you still don't know what TED is, I suggest you look into it.  The people that attend TED are the movers, the shakers, the doers, the entreprenures, the idealists and everything in between.  I want to take TED and copy it to the South East.  So, starting from scratch here is where I am going with it.  First order of business is to create a plan of what I need to do.  So here is the break down of what needs to happen in order to get TED working down here.

Like I said before, I met with my old boss at Florida Tech and so this school will look to be the starting venue of the event.  It has performing arts center that can hold around 500 people.

I have to create:

1. A Mission Statement - This is a one liner of what I am hoping to accomplish.  I am hoping to go along with something of what TED has as their one liner. "Ideas worth Spreading"  But I want to get the point across very early to what I am looking for so this one liner might not do in the beginning. 
2. Objectives - I need objectives of the conference.  What do I hope people gain from it?  These are the goals of the organization.  Organizations CANNOT survive without goals in mind?
3. Framework - I need a board of advisors.  The advisors are very different from a board of directors.  A board of directors steers the organization.  A board of advisors steer the leader of the organization, by giving advice and not threatening the leaders position. These advisors need to be able to provide Creative input into the organization.
4. Timeline - The timeline is one of the most important.  When can this conference be started?  I see this conference as one that could really take off.  The timeline is when would the first conference and how much of a regular thing would it me?  At this level, my old boss and I are currently pushing for somewhere around March 2009.  It gives us enough time to get it right and get enough publicity for the event.  That is what I want to happen.  I want enough people that they would be more than happy to come back, but I don't want it to be so regular that they get bored easily.  So the time frame in the beginning would be set at 6 months.  So every 6 months we would hold another conference.
5. Resources - These I think will be the easiest because they will be static.  They are physical objects that need to be procured.
   • Where is it being held?
   • What should we plan for the first event?
   • Advertiser - I personally want only one advertiser.  I think advertising can clog the atmosphere, so this will be held down to one or two.
     
6. List of Speakers - This is the biggest one.  This one has to be thought out and figured out. 
   
7. Theme - This one should be before the list of speakers on the list, but there needs to be an underlining theme to start off with.  People don't want to come for a variety.  They want something they can connect with.  Later down the road, if the conference became bigger then I would be willing to put categories into it.