What I Learned at TED: A First-Time Attendee’s Experience
I had the honor of attending TED 2025 earlier in April in Vancouver. Since I fully recognize what a privilege it is to attend this IRL, I’m recapping my first-time attendance experience from 3 angles:
Event Producer Point-of-View
Entrepreneur Point-of-View
First-Time Attendee Point-of-View
I’ve been very fortunate in my career to be both a producer and an attendee at quite a few large-scale events that really make an impact on attendees. Thankfully I’m never wearing these two hats at the same time.
My definition of an impactful event is one that tackles important problems; and challenges you to leverage your knowledge and network to push for change, new connections, and a deeper community. Attending TED 2025 definitely made it into my Top 15 live experiences that fall into this category.
This year’s TED Talks theme was Humanity Reimagined. I have no idea how far out they chose this theme but the timing of when this live event took place overlapping with what’s happening in America, could not have been more serendipitous.
FROM AN EVENT PRODUCER POINT-OF-VIEW:
One word - RESPECT! Every detail of the event was well-covered; and for my #EventProfs, I’m not just talking about special diet accommodations. The AV production; creative details; quiet spaces; networking spaces; restrooms; accessibility; the list goes on, all were outstanding. I’m including a collage of photos to show some of these examples:
I was very impressed that they have the logistics and creative side of TED down. I learned from attending this event that this was their 11th year in Vancouver and in 2026, that will be their last year in Vancouver. For 2027, they will be moving it back to California (exact city and venue not yet announced publicly).
I didn’t get a chance to personally meet Monique Ruff-Bell, Chief Program & Strategy Officer, who I have been following on LinkedIn for some time now since this was a very full week for her but I can definitely see us bonding over a cup of coffee recapping the highs and lows of event-life.
From my understanding, there’s a small but mighty core team that produces the event, and they bring on the hundreds of contractors the week before and week of to help ensure there’s a human behind every touch point. They did not UNDERSTAFF in any touch points. Another example of this is when I first arrived, someone greeted me at the main doors and by the time I made it up the escalators, they had another greeter already with my welcome bag and badge. This is how all check-in experiences should goal themselves; no long queues and enough staff members to redirect anyone that has additional questions.
One thing I noticed was that everything planned on the menu was very healthy/organic, and I was hoping I could find a few what I call cheat meals but they really curated the menu; am I too Texan? They had enough coffee bars/tea stations/beverage and snack stations that there was NEVER too long of a line. Breakfast, lunch & dinner were served long enough to where everyone could get plenty of food. Kudos to the F&B team!
One thing I LOVED – there is something special about keeping the attendance to a certain size and all at one venue - the intimacy is fantastic. I truly have forgotten about events like this because over the last decade most of the events I’ve attended or that we’ve touched at RED VELVET span more than one venue.
Those are my impressions from an event producer’s point of view. Mad respect to Monique and the entire Programs team. Knowing how many hours go into ideating and actually executing all the details is not for the faint of heart.
FROM AN ENTREPRENEUR POINT-OF-VIEW:
TED offers something for every entrepreneur - whether you’re just starting out, you’re firing on all cylinders, or you’re winding down your career. When just starting out, TED is a great place to get inspiration and connections that can help you create the business you want to build. When you’re winding down, you have the perspective to appreciate everything happening at TED. But perhaps in the throes of growth mode, it is hard for entrepreneurs to stop selling long enough to be empty vessels listening and learning from the events going on around them. I’m saying this out loud because it stood out to me how often it was repeated that we as the TED community are encouraged to network; make new connections BUT no hard-selling to each other.
Typically when you attend an event, you fall into one of two categories - are you the buyer or the supplier? So I had to ask myself where do I fall attending TED? Honestly, I didn’t know before I attended but after the week, I realized I am one of the lucky ones where I would say I fall in both categories.
You see, there were quite a few of the speakers that were chosen that were not only looking to make an impact with their talk by gaining new followers but also actively looking for investors to fund their next project or BIG idea as TED likes to call it. You can also be what I call a connector; making warm intros to help others. I was not only inspired to help those that spoke on the stage but also to many of the people I just met fortuitously.
To the 50-ish people I made a real connection with in Vancouver, I look forward to keeping in touch and finding ways to help each other as we continue to navigate our respective careers.
FROM A FIRST-TIME ATTENDEE POINT-OF-VIEW:
I was very appreciative of the pre-event Zoom call; the Newcomers Orientation and even putting a simple sticker on our badges to help identify other newcomers. There’s still probably room for improvement for bringing newcomers into the community.
I typically describe myself as an Introvert Extrovert - meaning I don’t need to be around people to get my energy BUT I know it’s part of my job, my role as CEO and even as a community leader, I need to be comfortable with networking and introducing myself in a crowded room etc. I of course went to all the programming, and I met new people, connected with them on the app; and even have done some post-follow-ups via LinkedIn and good ‘ole email but something was still missing.
Like many new attendees, I only knew 2-3 people who were going to TED out of approximately 1700 attendees. Newcomers like myself were really lacking a buddy who knows the ropes to hang out with and help break the ice. It was very obvious who was a part of TED for years and who were new to the event, and in a cultural event like this, you don’t want anyone to feel left out. Despite my experience with events and my outwardly extroverted nature, I found it hard to get plugged in. I’m sure my experience wasn’t unique.
These are tough challenges to organize around. As someone attending, it might make sense to recruit a friend to go as well, or to find a friend who is part of the community and will help show you around. I didn’t walk away with enough connection to pre-commit to attending next year. I am hoping that over the next few months as I continue to reflect on what I learned, whom I met, that I will feel more connected to the TED brand because I do want to be a part of this community that helps the greater good. I am definitely very grateful to have attended an official TED event. Like I said earlier, Top 15 of my favorite live experiences.
In full disclosure, I applied and paid to attend my first TED. I was not a comped attendee. Important to share since a few have asked me privately.
TALKS & PEOPLE THAT REALLY STOOD OUT TO ME FROM TED 2025:
This is what a digital coup looks like by Carole Cadwalladr
Meet NEO, your robot butler in training by Bernt Børnch
Not public yet but highly recommend following Lenore Skenazy to hear her talk about Free-Range Kids
Not public yet but highly recommend following Roland Fryer and his thoughts about racial achievement gaps
Not public yet but highly recommend following Boyan Slat to hear how he founded The Ocean Cleanup project despite failing the first attempt.
Not public yet but if you have never heard the backend story of how Gabe Whaley founded MSCHF, definitely a fun one. FUN RANDOM OBSERVATION: I was probably the only person at the entire TED 2025 that owns an actual pair of the Big Red Boots IYKYKTwo examples of immersive experiences at SXSW 2025 were Dubai’s Museum of the Future and Rivian’s Joyride. My personal favorite was Rivian’s riding experience known as Electric Joyride in the middle of Downtown Austin on the man-made dirt track to show how rugged their electric trucks can be. I’m grateful to see two years in a row that the title sponsor of SXSW did not hold back on how they wanted to show up and set the bar for other brands.
Not public yet but highly recommend listening to Lei Cheng's talk about freedom
Not public yet but I personally found it fascinating to hear Robert Green speak about how AI was being used to DNA genomics research
Not public yet but for my fellow Asian-Americans, go follow Avni Patel Thompson; her way of storytelling is mesmerizing and I am calling it out now that she's someone to watch in her space.
Not public yet but be sure to follow Ariel Ekblaw; her story of how she's looking at how we approach living in space is absolutely inspiring and I want to help her get her project funded.