Transcriber: Ivana Korom Reviewer: Miloš Milosavljević
[TEDx Behind the Scenes]
What I want to talk you about
is the role of partnerships within the TEDx events,
and in the world of TED as well.
What I thought I'd do is just
start off with a short video
of how we talk about partnerships at TED.
(Video) The TED conference presents an opportunity to bring together
such an amazing group of collaborative people
to see how to spread ideas.
In a traditional sponsorship, typically what happens is:
"Let's give you some money and then
you can have your logo up here".
In TED, it's: "What can we do
that's really interesting?
What can we do that moves the bar forward?
What can we do that no one has ever done before?
Chris Anderson: Let's turn the lights down! Are you ready?
It's time for TED!
We're here, day two at TED,
I'm sitting in front of a GE conversation board
that we're taking on this year,
as part of a sponsorship program that we're doing with TED.
It's been fun to see the ideas and conversation
that we're having about our energy future:
tough subjects like smart grid,
and we decided to come to TED
because this is where the conversations happen,
where you get a great intersection of smart people
who have passion, who have resources,
who have capabilities to make things happen.
Four of the last five years I've been
the "Bag" sponsor for the TED Conference.
I have kind of evolved the bag into a platform
for partnering with other TED community members.
This year, this is a collaboration
with Coca-Cola and Steel Case designtex.
We did 10 colors of this fabric,
and so there are actually 2,200 bags,
1,100 unique color ways.
Then we have a little contest to find your twin and win.
So at the breaks we're doing
all these interesting chocolate pairings & tastings.
And to the one this morning is all about bacon and chocolate.
In the bookstore alone,
I know, that was hard
because I'm glad [they are] shipping books home
because I've bought two bags already!
So, under "Explore" there are lots of things you can explore:
You can explore constellations, you can explore the solar system...
So many people come at me at TED saying:
"This is so wonderful. I wanted to do this
my whole life to be able to really feel like
I can explore the Universe
and you've made it!"
And I thought: "That's what I've always wanted, too!"
We have a message that we think is important
about energy, about technology, about the future of energy
and I think also about the place
of a company like Shell.
And this is the sort of public to engage
with that kind of message.
They appreciate it, they understand it,
some of them are out there creating that future.
And it gives us a chance to have
a very different kind of dialogue.
It's an incredible oportunity
to reach a lot of people who are
industry influencers,
potential customers, potential suppliers,
great sources of creative inspiration for what you're doing.
The first TED I came to,
the product that they used to support the speakers on stage
was somebody else's furniture.
I thought we could do a better job
of actually enabling the setting to be cooler
to have a different kind of vibe.
Because I can connect my learning
and the products to the site,
I then get interaction and feedback
from lots of people that use it,
and it helps stimulate the next generations
of what we might create.
As a sponsor of TED, it's been a sheer delight
working with the TED organisation.
It's been smooth, it's been easy,
we're working towards realizing a common objective,
and it just doesn't get any better than that.
Ronda Carnegie: So let me just quickly talk about
some of the ways that TED events again,
you know, we talk a lot about
the power of the audience that's in there,
that these are people who are coming
who are in search of an idea,
that they're a powerful group of people to engage with,
and you don't want to miss the opportunity
to be able to do that.
There's lots of different ways that we talk to partners
about engaging at TED,
and here are some examples:
Conference infrastructure is the most obvious,
of course, and what we find,
- I'll talk about this in a minute,
is that that tends to be a lot of in kind partners,
projects and collaborations.
How can those who are partners come together
and learn from those people who are coming to TED,
and how can we facilitate those kinds of conversations?
To showcase innovation you saw
Microsoft did it, and others.
What's the next thing that we need to learn,
and how can we be a part of that?
Show it to us before it's come out in the market,
so that we have a sense of new ideas.
Networking, obviously the moment
which people who have ideas come together.
It's a powerful opportunity,
What can you do with that and then entertainment.
One of the things that I always talk about at TED
is that we are not party planners and we're not selling parties,
and so, within partnerships at TED
we're not interested in winnebago marketing
and just putting logos everywhere.
We want to push partners to think beyond that
and to really think about the opportunity again,
that they can present themselves in a different way.
So, I've just pulled some things here,
just in terms of conference infrastructure.
I heard someone talking, as I was walking around with lunch,
and they said: "Boy, it is amazing when you mention TED,
how people come to the party because of the brand name
in terms of wanting to be a part of giving
and being a part of this as a community project.
And so infrastructure
is the obvious way to be able to do that
in terms of in kind partners.
Here is just a listing of things
that I've seen in terms of in kind,
and these are quite obvious
in terms of those ways in which partners can participate.
And then also, how can you create experiences
that are interesting and unique,
fun, playful, and again thinking about
whether it is test-driving a new product
or doing something in an interesting, unique way?
You saw that whole thing about chocolates
and tasting and bacon,
there's a whole thing about food that takes place.
That is a huge opportunity
to be able to do something interesting and unique
with partners around the idea of food
an integration that I think is really exciting.
And then, I think it's very exciting
to really focus on local partners, when you can.
You know, the idea that today a TEDx can be
a modern chamber of commerce,
and before people came together around building a community,
and now today ideas are at the centre of that community.
So, how can you localize that
in terms of giving those local partners an opportunity
to be able to be a part of the conversation?
So this is a typical e-mail that I get all the time:
"Can I talk to Google, Nokia, Microsoft, Coca-Cola, and Vodafone?",
and I'll probably get about 50 of these e-mails a day.
And so, I just wanted to spend one minute talking about that,
because I think that there's this misperception
that we don't want you to talk to those people.
We actually are OK with you talking to those people.
It's just a matter of who is the right person
to have that conversation with,
and what is the context of that conversation.
So, these are partners that we're talking to about bigger initiatives,
and often what comes back
is that the person that I'm working with
that corporation will say
they're getting tons of different phone calls.
So, one of the things that we're working on
is working with corporations
about how to make that process a little bit easier,
find out what regions they're interested in focusing on,
and then being able to give you a chance to continue to talk to them.
Someone said to me earlier:
"Nokia was going to do an event in my market anyway,
and if it can be a TEDx, and they're going to spend the money anyway,
why can't they do it in the market?"
And these are the situations where we're learning
so much from you as a community,
in terms of interacting with corporations
and it feels we just have to work that through
in terms of getting to a comfortable place.
So, want to communicate a complete openness to that.
But just know that we're students here along with you,
as we move through this process.
So, you know, lastly, what we're working on
just to give you an idea in terms
of where I'm thinking and the team is thinking going forward.
We're looking for a more expanded sponsorship guidelines
that will allow this measure of flexibility
in terms of reaching out.
We want to really look at TEDx organisers
to expand partnership, relationships with many of TED projects.
If you're talking to a partner
and they want to understand how to engage with bigger TED,
we are happy to talk to you about some of the projects we're doing,
and to get you involved,
not only as a community, a TEDx community,
but in association with your partnership,
and again, you know, creating this very open environment
where we can share best practices.
I'm happy to answer questions after
or during the conference as well.
Thanks.