Robin Williams Saves TED and BBC From Tech Meltdown: Jack Myers Live From TED

Robin Williams

Published: February 28, 2008 at 09:54 AM GMT
Last Updated: March 9, 2008 at 09:54 AM GMT

By Jack Myers

It's 11:30 PM Wednesday in Monterey. Thursday morning at 7 AM I will be meditating with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. TED is best experienced from early morning to late at night and you never know when a classic TED moment will occur.

I don't think there could be a more inspirational, emotional or extraordinary story than Jill Bolte Taylor's. A brain scientist who suffered and recovered from a devastating stroke, Taylor's story is more than a medical curiosity. It is a story about the power we each have to choose who we are in the universe and how our life force is defined by our right brain/ left brain power structure. In her 18-minute segment, Taylor brought the 1200 TEDsters here in Monterey and another 300 in Aspen to tears and she received a five minute standing ovation.

Just a few more of the attendees at TED this year are Goldie Hawn, Daphne Zuniga, Meg Ryan, Microsoft's Craig Mundie, Forest Whitaker, Kleiner Perkin's John Doerr with his daughter, Kevin Wall, Fred Goldring and Ken Hertz, Mike Walsh, John Girard, Jim Turner, Matt Groening, Paul Allen, Pierr Omidyar, Scott Carlin, Lu Li, Lawrence Bender, Susan Bratton, Aileen Lee, Craig Venter, Jeff Bezos. Most surprisingly, this year TED founder Richard Saul Wurman has returned, the first TED he has attended since Chris Anderson acquired and restructured the event five years ago. Read about other TED attendees at www.JackMyers.com

Where else but TED could I chat about book publishing with Wired Magazine editor Chris Anderson ("the other one") and author Seth Godin just minutes after watching Robin Williams perform a stand up impromptu comedy riff? Williams was in the audience for a special after-hours TED event -- the taping of a BBC World Debate on the future role of media in news, featuring journalist Carl Bernstein, Jordan's Queen Noor, Google's Sergey Brin and other notables. Two minutes into the taping, a technical problem stopped production and Williams totally stole the show, stepping onto the stage and riffing for ten minutes of pure comedic brilliance. "I think we have an example of old media at work here," he joked. Turning into an old man, he stared into the audience: "Online? You kids today…online. Your mom and me, we DID lines. WE WERE AWAKE!!."

Later, at a small dinner event hosted by Conde Nast Portfolio, Ken Hertz, Fred Goldring and William Morris' Paul Bricault, Hasbro's Dave Capper demonstrated UDance, a new video game that promises to do for dance what Guitar Hero did for rock. It will be available at major retailers in time for Christmas. Capper also inveted Tooth Tunes, the best selling tooth brush that plays rock n' roll that only you can hear when it touches your teeth. At the dinner, I learned about the Blue Man Group's Blue Man School in Manhattan, which plans to expand from its current grades Kindergarten through 3rd grade level to straight through high school. As a big fan of Blue Man, what a thrill to have dinner with the three founding members, along with Meg Ryan, Daphne Zuniga, NetFlix' Ted Sarandos and eBay co-founder Jeff Skoll. Zuniga, who is starring in a new production at San Francisco Bay Theater, The Scene, produced an award-winning documentary about TED available at Amazon and NetFlix. She first learned about TED during our Lunch at Michael's conversation in August 2006.

It's challenging to share the TED experience without seeming disingenuous and overly enthusiastic. There is a shared sense of belonging, welcoming and mutual involvement. TED moments are often life changing. While you have not heard of most of the speakers, any one of them could change your life forever. There is not a moment to be missed at TED.

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