In his original design of TED, Wurman sought to strip away some of the conventions of the business conference in an attempt to make things livelier and more engaging.
For instance, he dispensed with the podium: It made it too easy for speakers to read from a script, and, as Wurman puts it, “it made the speaker feel less vulnerable because his or her groin was protected. I wanted them to feel more vulnerable.”
The Creator Of TED Aims To Reinvent Conferences Once Again | Co. Design
Pithy, but the really interesting point is here:
With his WWW conference, Wurman intends to supply a challenging premise or question for each pair of speakers to address — but they won’t know what it is in advance. And where they choose go with that topic, or even how long they talk, also will be undetermined. Wurman is hoping that the result will be, in his words, “intellectual jazz.”
Sounds like someone needs to read Gamechangers.
