:: Shekhar Bhatia

Leveraging the power of ideas to change the world

Shekhar Bhatia

Feb.6 : Imagine a forum where one moment a former US President talks about his dream of a better world, and the next minute a young kid fresh out of college shows off his ingenious piece of computer software. Where you can hear a famous anthropologist speak on what separates us from apes, and watch a contemporary dance troupe perform its brilliant interpretation of evolution.

No, it’s not "Davos". The annual World Economic Forum meeting in Davos is no doubt the most prestigious gathering of influential people, but the kind I am talking about happens only at TED, a conference in California better known by its acronym (for Technology, Entertainment and Design).

TED, they say, is the place where "you meet people who are smarter than you are". It’s an "invitation-only" conference where some of the world’s most contemporary thinkers, activists, philosophers, scientists and artists talk about cutting-edge ideas in areas as diverse as art, culture, science, technology and global issues that affect our lives.

This year, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee, Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani and author and anthropologist Oliver Sacks are among a handful of people — just about 50 — who are privileged to be invited to speak to an audience limited to a thousand invitees. Each speaker gets only 18 minutes to demonstrate, enact or illustrate his or her viewpoint.

I have been to Davos, and yes, it’s a formidable gathering of world’s leaders. But TED is quite different: it’s about intellectual stimulation, about "thought leaders" and their extraordinary creative work. I have never been to one, but I have read enough about it to say that it is one of a kind: This is the conference where Apple Mac and Sony compact disc were first unveiled. And there is no dress code at TED: you can come in your jeans and a T-shirt. What matters is what’s in your head and not the colour of your tie. The speakers have one thing in common: they are the pre-eminent gurus of the day. Mr Bill Gates has been invited as a philanthropist and Mr Nilekani as a "technologist and visionary".

I don’t know how many Indians have made it to TED — by "made it" I mean invited to speak and not "been to" the California coast where the conference is held in February. You cannot invite yourself to this elite gathering; you have to pay $6,000, fill an elaborate form and hope to be accepted — and keep in mind that seats for the three-and-a-half day meeting get sold out a year in advance. The form’s not simple either: "If a friend were to describe your accomplishments in up to three sentences, what would he or she say?" And, "What do we need to know about you that we didn’t ask?"

So I do what a million other people like me do: go to the Internet. I have downloaded many videos from TED’s website and watched neurologist V.S. Ramachandran talk about the mysteries of the brain, linguist Steven Pinker on the way we use words and also seen an African parrot called Einstein proudly present its vocabulary of more than 200 words and sounds. And at the end of each talk I sit back and say, "Wow".

I wonder why anyone in India has not thought of setting up a TED-like organisation where a creative puppeteer can share the stage with a microbiologist, or an architect with an archaeologist. I am not saying create a parallel TED; just replicate the model so that our best and brightest get a platform from where they can talk about their ideas.

We have great institutions but our method of learning, unfortunately, does not push us to be original, to be different. Few schools encourage their students to think outside the box. By and large our system does not fuel creativity. And when it does, there is hardly any platform outside academia where their achievements can be showcased or applauded by a wider audience. Only a select audience can get to TED but millions of others have been able to access the talks, and be inspired by them, by downloading them.

I have shared many talks with my family and friends. We have watched Aubrey de Grey’s fascinating talk on how we can stop ageing, and Lakshmi Pratury, the "founder of a group that builds connections and hosts events around the Indian community in India and America", on the forgotten art of letter writing. It’s the kind of talk that might make you pick up your pen and write two lines on a picture postcard to a friend.

TED is the brainchild of Richard Saul Wurman, an architect by training whose abiding passion has been to "make information understandable". In 2002, he sold it to author/publishing magnate/technologist Chris Anderson, founder of the non-profit Sapling Foundation, who added the annual Ted Prize. Three winners get $100,000 each to improve the world in some way. Among the winners are U2 singer Bono and Bill Clinton.

The good news is that TED will be bringing a smaller version to India in November. Its website does not give any information on the speakers or the entrance fee; it just says, "Details will follow". If you are invited, don’t miss it. If not, you can always watch the videos at www.ted.com.

Shekhar Bhatia can be contacted at shekhar.bhatia@gmail.com