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TED returning to Whistler

Simulcast event to be part of Vancouver conference
n-ted-talks

One of two annual TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conferences, the main events in a technology and design lecture series known widely as TED Talks, is moving to Vancouver for 2014 and the foreseeable future after more than three decades of hosting both events in California. The second event, held at Long Beach, California, will be held in its usual location.

The March 2014 conference will be held at the Vancouver Convention Centre, but organizers have announced that the TEDActive conference - a simulcast conference that takes place at a second location - will be moving to Whistler from Palm Springs, California. It will also mark the 30th anniversary for the conference, although the second event in Silicon Valley that is moving to Vancouver was first held in 1990.

Whistler hosted an independent TEDx event in 2010 during the Winter Olympics that was loosely connected to the forum, which focused on the issue of sustainability.

The Vancouver Sun reports that negotiations with TED organizers were top secret and until Friday, Feb. 1, only Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson and City Manager Penny Ballem knew what was happening.

TED events bring together influential thinkers in a wide range of fields, with regular presenters like Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Nobel Prize winners in a range of fields, past president Bill Clinton, former vice-president and climate change warrior Al Gore, among others. Some 1,050 talks, many taken from the same events, are available online at www.ted.com/talks. As of November 2012, over a billion people have tuned in to the event.