Holistic ICT for EcoLiving

Its that time of year of again…for TED. For 6ooo dollars you too can hob nob with the most influential innovators and changemakers in the world.

Al Gore and Sergei Brin were there, as was Ethan Zuckerman who is the official blogger for the event.

Yet I’ve always wondered about TED Conference price tag. It seems I am not alone in thinking this. Actually there is a backlash again high priced events that promote exclusivity. Bar Camps emerged in reaction to the Silicon Valley elite clustering at high priced Oreilly Summits and became a global phenomena some have referred to as the “unconference”.

Sarah Lacy, in her BusinessWeek Column titled “Why I’m Fed up with TED” raises some important issues about the way in which conferences are designed.

There’s just something about TED that’s exceedingly smug, and it’s particularly troubling given the conference’s proximity to, and enthusiastic support from, normally egalitarian Silicon Valley. California’s tech haven is a meritocracy where what matters most is smarts and hard work, not pedigree, ethnicity, where you went to school, or what club you get into—or so it is most of the year. TED seems more like a free pass for the Valley to shed these values, to be seduced by celebrity, to gawk at Hollywood types and politicians that its denizens would otherwise never encounter.

It almost seems that the fee for is not just to cover costs or raise funds, but also to filter out the lower level people who might clutter up the place. That exclusivity is what makes it so attractive to many, because the tendency is that when we become famous and respected that we want to be around other people of similar status. Some freebie passes are given to those in the elite TED network who have no inclination or capacity to spend 6000 dollars for a single conference ticket, yet even these are very much tied to who you know and the social status of your job.

More troubling is the implication that a demotion or change of job would get you “de-invited” or those that those who spoke openly about this practice would be barred from the conference. Again Lacy makes an important point:

One friend told me of being de-invited to TED after quitting an ostensibly prestigious San Francisco job. “Did I somehow change as a person because my business card changed?” this person asks. You won’t get people like this to let you use their names, though, lest they risk being barred from future TEDs.

TED Africa in 07 may have been an attempt to broaden the conference’s scope a bit. Obviously with people who have 6k for a conference, 1600 for a plane ticket and 400 for accommodations is peanuts. To their credit unlike the World Economic Forum which takes place in the most comfortable part of Europe, the TED folks actually made an attempt to bring TED to the people most in need of the kind of solutions they discuss at these events and I received word that many innovators developing world changing technologies in Africa were allowed to participate.

It was TED’s exclusivity that gave rise to BIL. The organizers (which includes the Singularity Institute) are very careful to point out that while the 6k TED is a wonderful thing it is “too expensive for most people, including a great number with good ideas worth spreading. BIL has been created as a free space for people with ideas to come together and share them.”