TED Announces Speakers

Bill Gates, Chris Hadfield and Sting among the 53 speakers for TED’s first-ever conference in B.C.

With its inaugural Vancouver event just over a month away, TED has announced its 53-speaker lineup and schedule for the flagship event, to be hosted at the Vancouver Convention Centre. A self-described summit for the world’s top minds in technology, entertainment and design (or TED, for short), the 2014 convention will feature a wide range of speakers with backgrounds in science, arts and business.

The lineup includes geneticists and theoretical physicists, a cartoonist and a magician, speaking in broadly themed sessions with titles like “Us,” “Why?,” “Wish,” “Passion” and “Unstress.”

Among the speakers headlining the 18-minute sessions: astronaut Chris Hadfield; Bill and Melinda Gates; director of security at Twitter Del Harvey; director of MIT Media Lab Joi Ito; and former Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe.

If you can’t make the March 17-21 event at the Vancouver Convention Centre (or the $7,500 ticket price), in tune with the event’s tag “ideas worth spreading,” the talks will be broadcast online

Here’s the full list:

Allan Adams: Theoretical physicist
Kevin Briggs: Golden Gate guardian
Amanda Burden: Urban planner
Matthew Carter: Type designer, famous for the fonts Verdana, Galliard and Georgia
David Chalmers: Philosopher and NYU professor
Wendy Chung: Geneticist
Andrew Connolly: Astronomer and developer of Google Sky
Masarat Daud: Rural education campaigner
Zak Ebrahim: Peace activist
Keren Elazari: GigaOM analyst cybersecurity expert
David Epstein: ProPublica sports science reporter, former Sports Iluustrated contributor
Bran Ferren: Technology designer
Melinda and Bill Gates: Philanthropists
Deborah Gordon: Stanford ecologist
Helder Guimarães: Magician
Chris Hadfield: Astronaut
Del Harvey: Director of security at Twitter
Hugh Herr: Prostheticist at MIT Media Lab
Mellody Hobson: Investment expert and chair of the board of DreamWorks Animation
Jim Holt: Writer and philosopher
Joi Ito: Director of the MIT Media Lab
Sarah Jones: Tony Award winning-playwright and UNICEF ambassador
Nancy Kanwisher: MIT brain researcher
Chris Kluwe: Former Minnesota Vikings punter and author
Rob Knight: Microbial ecologist
Marc Kushner: Architect
David Kwong: Crossword puzzle maker for the New York Times
Michel Laberge: Plasma physicist
Sara Lewis: Firefly specialist
Will Marshall: Space scientist
Jon Mooallem: Writer
Randall Munroe: Cartoonist, responsible for xkcd
Nicholas Negroponte: Founder of the MIT Media Lab, and the man behind One Laptop per Child
Raspyni Brothers: Jugglers
Avi Reichental: 3D printer
Yoruba Richen: Documentary filmmaker
Geena Rocero: Model and activist
Mark Ronson: Music Producer and DJ
Ben Saunders: Arctic explorer
Gavin Schmidt: Climate scientist
Jennifer Senior: Writer
Simon Sinek: Leadership expert
Andrew Solomon: Writer
Margaret Gould Stewart: User experience master
Sting: Composer, singer, author, actor, activist
Julia Sweeney: Actor, comedian, playwright
Marco Tempest: Techno-illusionist
Jason Webley: Musician
Ed Yong: Science writer