TED founder to speak at USC today


Richard Saul Wurman, the creator of the Technology, Entertainment and Design conferences, will speak at USC this morning as part of a Visions and Voices: The Arts and Humanities Initiative event to discuss his new venture examining the art of improvised conversation and intellectual jazz.

Wurman’s project, titled WWW.WWW, will gather some of the world’s most influential thinkers, take them to a secret location and randomly pair them for impromptu conversations onstage while the audience analyzes their discussions.

Among those expected to attend are internationally acclaimed architect Frank Gehry and Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington.

Wurman describes the new conference as a “top drawer” exclusive event saturated with creativity and innovation.

“I am only interested in absolute excellence,” Wurman said. “The conference is intense, intellectually jaw-breaking and there are no speeches or presentations.”

Wurman is also developing a tablet application that will allow users to view the WWW.WWW conference and interact with one another via Twitter.

An author of 81 books on a variety of topics, Wurman has explored everything from social media and health care, to music and architectural design. Wurman created the TED conferences in 1984 to analyze the interplay between a variety of concepts.

Several cities, communities and universities around the world, including USC, have begun hosting TEDx conferences in recent years to engage people in innovative thinking. TEDx conferences, which can be hosted by cities, universities or any other type of community, are organized independently, but must follow certain rules to be granted a license to use the TED name. The fourth TEDxUSC conference will be held in May.

“TED conferences are so amazing,” said Mina Chow, a part-time lecturer in the school of architecture and a friend of Wurman. “The time just flies and students learn about innovation, a life-changing, ground-breaking and absolutely original process.”

Inspired by TED, Chow is currently working on bridging architecture with cinema to create a 3-D project.

“I’m using technological breakthroughs to present architectural design in an entertaining way and that is just one example of what TED stands for,” Chow said. “That’s what is so amazing about these conferences: One moment I’m having an intellectual epiphany and the next I’m dancing with my students to reggae on stage.”

Wurman said TED conferences exhibit none of the usual traits people associate with conferences.

“There’s no podiums, no panels, no speeches,” Wurman said. “It’s an eclectic meeting featuring everything from animal acts to the first Macintosh.”

TED conferences have featured speakers as diverse as Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and televangelist Billy Graham.

“It is important to recognize the interaction of so many things,” Wurman said. “For example, social media spurred revolutions in the Middle East. There is an interconnection between all things, but in school it’s not taught that way.”