Geniuses, innovators, sports heroes, and entertainers descend on Vancouver this week for the ultra-exclusive TED2017 conference.
TED, an acronym for Technology Entertainment and Design, is built on a philosophy of emboldening ideas has attracted 90 speakers and performers, including tech titan Elon Musk, chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov and tennis legend Serena Williams, to the Vancouver Convention Centre.
Serena revealed pregnancy to world by accident
In her Tuesday night interview on the Ted2017 stage, Williams, who recently revealed she was two weeks pregnant when she won the Australian Open in January, told journalist Gayle King that she revealing her pregnancy via Snapchat was an accident.
The photo of the tennis superstar in a one piece bathing suit was captioned “20 weeks.”
“I was on vacation, taking time for myself, and I have this thing where I’ve been checking my status and taking a picture every week,” she said. “I’ve been just saving it, but you know how social media is — you press the wrong button and…”
“My phone doesn’t ring that much, and thirty minutes later, I’d missed four calls. So I picked it up and realized, ‘Oh no.’”
Gayle King interviews Serena Williams at TED2017 in Vancouver.
Williams, 35, said she intends to return to tennis after she becomes a mother.
“I definitely plan on coming back — I’m not done yet,” says Williams. “My story isn’t over.”
“I’m really inspired by my sister, who’s a year older than me. If she’s still playing, then I know I can play,” says Williams. “This is just a new part of my life. My baby is going to be in the stands, hopefully cheering for me and not crying too much.”
In a video, His Holiness Pope Francis delivers a hopeful speach at TED2017 – The Future You in Vancouver.
POPE PIPES IN
Almost as big as Serena’s pregnancy news, was Pope Francis’s appearance at the conference last night. (Kidding)
His Holiness recorded a video message that was played on the big screen at Ted2017.
According to the Ted Blog, Pope Francis delivered a hopeful message to people of all faiths, to those who have power as well as those who don’t, the spiritual leader provides illuminating commentary on the world as we currently find it and calls for equality, solidarity and tenderness to prevail.
“Let us help each other, all together, to remember that the ‘other’ is not a statistic, or a number,” he says. “We all need each other.”
Postmedia reporter Gord McIntyre wrote that it took more than a year for TED organizers to iron out the details of the Pope’s 18-minute video appearance.
The video was recorded by a Vatican Television Centre camera crew at the Domus Sanctae Marthae (the guest house in which Francis lives in Vatican City), and marked the first time he has addressed an international conference.
… “How wonderful would it be if the growth of scientific and technological innovation would come along with more equality and social inclusion. How wonderful would it be, while we discover faraway planets, to rediscover the needs of the brothers and sisters orbiting around us.”
Famous names gather for Vancouver’s TED Talks
Attendees paid thousands of dollars, but all the talks are being streamed in participating theatres.
Not all the celebrities are on stage giving talks. Many A-listers come to the annual TED event in Vancouver just to listen and mingle. Last year’s event attracted a diverse set of celebs that included Harrison Ford, MC Hammer and Jaden Smith.
Ford and Hammer actually were spotted carousing the town together.
Monica Lewinsky, who last year gave a powerful talk on shaming and online bullying, has returned to Vancouver to be a part of TED. She posed for a photo with U.S. civil rights activist DeRay Mckesson. (An earlier version of this post incorrectly stated Lewinsky was here as part of the TED Fellows program.)
KING KHAN HITS VANCOUVER
The biggest star on the TED2017 lineup this year might be Indian actor Shah Rukh Khan, who is known as the King of Bollywood and the most famous man in India.
Khan is part of a TED2017 session called Tales of Tomorrow. Khan also runs the nonprofit Meer Foundation that focuses on supporting victims of acid attacks with medical treatment, legal aid, rehabilitation and livelihood support.
Paparazzi staked out Mumbai airport to capture Khan’s departure to Vancouver.
COMPUTERS ARE OK
In his talk on Monday, the 54-year-old Kasparov, regarded by many as the greatest chess player in history, spoke about humanity’s anxiety with our growing reliance on electronics.
On the TED Blog, reporter Daryl Chen wrote that Kasparov, who famously faced off against IBM supercomputer Deep Blue in 1997, told the crowd if machines replace us at tasks they can do better and faster, it gives us the opportunity to focus on what makes us human.
“Machines have calculations; humans have understanding. Machines have instructions; we have purpose. Machines have objectivity; we have passion …We will need intelligent machines to help us turn our grandest dreams into reality,” he said.
, “If we fail, it will not be because our machines were too intelligent or not intelligent enough. If we fail, it’s because we grew complacent and limited our ambition. There’s one thing only humans can do, and that’s dream — so let us dream big
n 1997, Garry Kasparov was the greatest chess player in the world — but he lost a match to an IBM supercomputer. Now, he muses on our fears of growing computer intelligence. Kasparov speaks at TED2017 Vancouver.
OK GO’S IMAGINATION SEMINAR
Rock band OK Go, whose elaborate music videos have garnered them more attention than their music (which is also pretty good), talked about imagination and how they come up with the ideas for their videos which include a zero-gravity production number, a synchronized treadmill dancing, and a warehouse-sized Rube Goldberg Machine.
Lead singer Damian Kulash told the TED Talks crowd that the band is often asked how it comes up with its ideas.
“It doesn’t feel like we thought of an idea; we found them,” he said.
Damian Kulash of OK Go sings at TED2017“ in Vancouver.
SPOTTED AT TED
Somehow Richard Branson pulled enough cash together to afford a ticket. The approachable Virgin billionaire posed for photos inside TED.
Adam Savage, one half of TV’s Mythbusters, always seems to have fun at TED. Yesterday, he played around with Spotmini, a robotic dog from Boston Dynamics.
MORE TO COME
