“Ideas worth spreading” is a concept worth spreading!

When I tell people about my interest in TED and viewing TED Talks online I get the same reactions all the time: “But what is TED?”

Then I explain that it is 5-18 minute long  talks by very inspiring people on Technology, Entertainment and Design and many other areas under the theme “Ideas worth spreading”.

But hearing this, most people inevitably ask me: “But how do you find the time to watch these talks?”

How do I find 18 minutes to watch a video on my iPhone while riding the subway, or on my computer at home instead of watching TV? Well, it is not hard…, and very rewarding for a curious guy like me. So I teamed up with Teo Härén to launch TEDxStockholm a year ago, in order to spread this wonderful concept here. We organized 3 TEDxStockholm events, starting small and growing to 200 people in Sept 2009. Then people started asking “But you are not paid for this, why are you doing it?”

So why are we doing this?

It is simple: to expand our minds and meet inspiring people! We are very proud to have been part of the TEDx program from its start, and we were extra happy when we just heard that two of our speakers from TEDxStockholm Sept 2009 have now been invited to speak at TED Global!

Congratulations to Johan Rockström and David Bismark!
Here you can see their talks at TEDxStockholm in Sept 2009:

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This week is the 1-year anniversary of TEDx worldwide,
read about it here and catch the spirit in this video, (Teo is at 1:43):

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Now Teo and I are launching the TEDx week in Stockholm.

We have encouraged everybody in our growing TEDxStockholm community to run their own TEDx event here, small or big.

What a great response we got: More than 23 TEDx events will take place in and around Stockholm during 17-24 of April. That is more than 5% of all TEDx events in the world!

Lara Stein- Head of TEDx at TED.COM likes our idea too:
“With the launch of TEDx week in Stockholm, Sweden is the first community to truly embraces the vision of TEDx as an open source platform and further the vision of TEDx as whole new approach to global education made possible by the web. We are truly excited to see where this experiment goes.”
Well, so are we, there is already a lot of energy in the air here! To all of you who are engaging yourself in organizing events during the TEDx week: a big THANK YOU!

Here is Teo’s guest blog on TED.com

Here is a the list of events in an around Stockholm during 17-24 April, click the links to learn more:

TEDxAlvik
TEDxBotkyrka
TEDxBromma
TEDxDjurgården
TEDxEskilstuna
TEDxHammarbysjöstad
TEDxHultsfred
TEDxHumlegården
TEDxKTH
TEDxLappis
TEDxMariefred
TedxMini
TEDxMyntet
TEDxNorrmalm
TEDxNybroviken
TEDxSSE4m
TEDxStockholm
TEDxSurbrunnsgatan
TEDxViggbyholm
TEDxÄlvkarleby

Also, the US Embassy in Stockholm is organizing a TEDx event.
TEDxGöteborg has a big event on May 15.
TEDxÖrebro is on May 22.

More info in the TEDxStockholm Facebook group, we have 1400+ members, welcome to join!

This time, Teo Hären and I are  organizing very small, private events, without our own speakers; TEDxÄlvkarleby och TEDxStockholm. With people from our networks, inspiring TED Talks and mind-expanding discussions.

I will also attend at least 7 of the other events here and report from them on this blog, so stay tuned.

Please note:  “These events are not being organized by the TED conferences — they are independently organized TEDx events, operated under license from TED”

Welcome to sign up for these events and don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions. These ideas are worth spreading!

/Henrik Ahlen