This March, the world renowned and official TED Conference is leaving its Long Beach, California location for a new home in Vancouver.

 

Some of the brightest and most inspirational icons, mavericks and geniuses will be coming to Vancouver to share their innovative and trend setting ideas. Speaker highlights for this year include Bill and Melinda Gates, Chris Hadfield, Sting, Zak Ebrahim, Rob Knight, Randall Monroe, Yoruba Richen, Wendy Chung and Chris Kluwe. See below for the full list of speakers.

Speakers will touch on topics ranging from technology, entertainment, design and education to climate change, architecture, music, physics, parenting, typography, and fireflies.

Celebrating its 30th anniversary, The TED Conference will be held from March 17 to March 21, 2014 at the Vancouver Convention Centre’s West Building. The building’s West Ballroom, one of the largest and most stunning ballrooms in Canada, will be temporarily converted into a purpose-built theatre for TED.

The official event will be held in Vancouver for at least two years and is the first time the global TED event has held outside of California. Its companioning event TEDActive will also be relocating to Whistler and will be held simultaneously with the TED Conference.

Given that this is the organization’s new home, TED and its staff are now headquartered in both Vancouver and New York City.

1,200 tickets for the TED Conference were sold out last year following an detailed application phase. Successful applicants were able to purchase the tickets, sold at price categories of $7,500, $15,000 and $125,000.

For participants in the event, the TED Conference experience will include music, comedy, dance, short talks, special break out sessions, art exhibits, tech demos, immersive experiences and other surprises.

Those who would like to watch the speakers live via video streaming from their homes, offices and universities need to pay $600 to $2,500 depending on location. Following the event, videos of the famous 18-minute talks will be published on TED’s YouTube channel.

TED Conference Vancouver 2014 Speakers List

Session 1: Liftoff

• Nicholas Negroponte, tech visionary
• Chris Hadfield, astronaut
• Geena Rocero, model and activist
• An education reformer

Session 2: Retrospect

• Bran Ferren, technology designer
• Marc Kushner, architect
• Raspyni Brothers, jugglers
• Yoruba Richen, documentary filmmaker
• Mark Ronson, music producer

Session 3: Reshape

• Michel Laberge, plasma physicist
• Amanda Burden, urban planner
• David Kwong, cruciverbalist
• Matthew Carter, type designer

Session 4: Wish

• Gavin Schmidt, climate scientist
• Melinda and Bill Gates, philanthropists
• Zak Ebrahim, peace activist
• The 2014 TED Prize winner
• Sting, musician and activist

Session 5: Us

• Nancy Kanwisher, brain researcher
• Rob Knight, microbial ecologist
• David Epstein, sports science reporter
• Jon Mooallem, writer

Session 6: Wired

• Chris Kluwe, punter and author
• Margaret Gould Stewart, user experience master
• Randall Munroe, cartoonist
• Avi Reichental, 3D printer

Session 7: Why?

• Jason Webley, musician
• Wendy Chung, geneticist
• Helder Guimarães, magician
• Hugh Herr, prostheticist
• Allan Adams, theoretical physicist
• Jim Holt, writer and philosopher

Session 8: Hacked

• Keren Elazari, cybersecurity expert
• David Chalmers, philosopher
• Marco Tempest, techno-illusionist
• Ed Yong, science writer

Session 9: Emergent

• Deborah Gordon, ecologist
• Sara Lewis, firefly specialist
• Del Harvey, security maven
• Will Marshall, space scientist
• Andrew Connolly, astronomer

Session 10: Passion

• Mellody Hobson, investment expert
• Masarat Daud, rural education campaigner
• Ben Saunders, arctic explorer

Session 11: Unstress

• Simon Sinek, leadership expert
• Jennifer Senior, writer
• Sarah Jones, polymorphic playwright
• Kevin Briggs, Golden Gate guardian

Session 12: Onward

• Joi Ito, relentless mind
• Andrew Solomon, writer
• Julia Sweeney, actor, comedian and playwright