Live From TED Day One: Queen Noor, Robin Williams, Sergey and Larry

TED is truly about the content and the experience, but there can be no doubt the networking opportunities are an incredibly exciting and enticing part of being here in Monterey for these four days. Here's who I saw and connected with in the past three hours at the optional TED University, which to attend requires that you arrive one-day early: Queen Noor of Jordan, Robin Williams, Cameron Diaz, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, Jeff Bezos, Jackie Bezos, Dean Kamen, Sony's Steve Mosko, Lee Daley, David Alberts, Eric Kuhne, Dan Klitsner, , Warren Packard, Paul Bricault, Bill Gross, Coca-Cola's Marc Mathieu, David Kidder, Jim Young, Majora Carter, Sarah Ferguson, Steve Rosenbaum, Jason Port, Scott Trowbridge, Linda Allison, Scott Cutler… and so many more.

The ideas, epiphanies, contacts and connections (human, emotional and intellectual) are already reaching a crescendo. Those TEDsters who miss TED University miss the point of being here: to open the mind, body and spirit to the greatest intellectuals of our time in their specific fields. From sustainability to magic, TED University offers a wealth of insights, ideas, fun and even chocolate.

Chatting between sessions with Virtual World expert Steve Nelson, I learned about footage never seen from the virtual world episode of NBC's The Office. NBC has to add this footage, some of which takes us into Dwight's Second Life closet, onto NBC.com Hulu. In this new media world, how can valuable footage like this be left on the cutting room floor? At the IAB Conference earlier this week, I spent time with Hulu CEO Jason Kilar. If you're reading Jason and Ben Silverman, here's a great opportunity to truly differentiate and draw audiences to Hulu and NBC.com. Steve also pointed out that virtual worlds and Second Life have moved through the "hyperbole and trough of disillusionment" and are now "moving up the slope of enlightenment." They are finding their place as educational tools, virtual corporate headquarters for corporate meetings and events, and as a venue for relevant, ongoing and cumulative small events rather than providing a mass advertising medium.

Tom Wujec of AutoDesk spoke about "the art of making ideas visible and the science of eliminating PowerPoint;" David Rose shared ten really valuable tools for making Google more effective as a search term; David Kidder, author of The Intellectual Devotional, introduced the idea of creating a personal board of directors to "unlock the next phase of growth in your life; Tom Guariello of TrueTalk shared insights on the future of social media and the inevitability of an Open Social platform such as OpenID and Google's OpenSocial. These are just a fraction of the offerings at TED University that I was able to attend. Of the 1100 registered users at TED here in Monterey an estimated half were registered for TED University.

The full conference starts in one-hour. Maybe I should overcome my resistance to Twittering so I can stay in touch with you.