TED conference streams live at UCLA

The Anderson School of Management’s second annual partnership with the Technology, Entertainment and Design conference – commonly known as the TED conference – has expanded to other graduate schools at UCLA and will include live discussions with TED speakers.

The entire conference, which takes place annually in Long Beach, will be broadcast live at Anderson’s main cafe, Il Tramezzino, today through Thursday. Student-run panels at Anderson will focus on certain TED talks, and the week will culminate in an event where students and faculty will give TED-inspired speeches.

The TED talks, which began in 1984, bring together a host of speakers from different professions – such as Al Gore and Bill Gates – to give talks on a variety of subjects.

The conference has become known as a hub for innovative thinking, which is the same idea the Anderson school has embraced, said Jim Stengel, an Anderson professor who helped create the partnership between the conference and the school last year.

UCLA is currently the only university that live streams the TED conference, Stengel said.

This year, Stengel will again be at the conference in Long Beach. For the first time, he will use a live-feed to chat with some of the conference speakers and let students at the Anderson School ask them questions through a live-feed.

Additionally, faculty from other UCLA graduate schools will speak at a TED Campfire event, which mimics the forum of the TED talks for UCLA speakers, for the first time.

Faculty from the schools of medicine, education and public policy at UCLA will be among those giving speeches at the event, said Elise Anderson, an Anderson spokeswoman.

“We want to use the assets that UCLA has, and work with people that don’t necessarily see the world as (businesspeople) do,” Stengel said.

Students who are involved in the event said the partnership between Anderson and TED is important because it gives students the opportunity to learn about business-related topics in a forum outside of the classroom.

“Being able to come up with new ideas and express them in a dynamic way is very important in the business world,” said James Vogl, a business graduate student and one of the student organizers of the event. Vogl was also involved in organizing last year’s inaugural TED week at Anderson.

Vogl said that after the economic recession of 2008, many businesses had to turn to more innovative and creative business methods than were used in the past. Watching TED talks in a business environment can sometimes help find solutions to problems or more innovative approaches, he said.

In his experience, talks on anthropological research, consumer marketing and a variety of other topics often had applications for his business school classes.

“(TED) speakers are always able to bring a new perspective on different topics,” Vogl said. “This allows the business school to offer a different, real world perspective to the students.”

The event also allows students and faculty to interact on a more equal level than they do in the classroom through various panel discussions that are held around the TED talks, Stengel said.

“It takes everyone out of the normal roles,” he said. “It’s a way for students to see themselves and faculty in a different light.”