Dreamers: Notes on Session 1 of TED2024

Hosts Chris Anderson, Monique Ruff-Bell and Helen Walters unveil TED’s new tagline — “Ideas change everything” — at Session 1 of TED2024: The Brave and the Brilliant, on Monday, April 15, 2024 in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

It’s time for TED! And this year’s conference marks a big year: the 40th anniversary of TED, honoring the inaugural conference in 1984.

With that in mind, TED2024 kicked off with a classically eclectic opening session, ranging from a powerful conversation on how Israel and Palestine can find peace to the future of AI to visual storytelling as you’ve never before seen it.

The event: Talks from Session 1 of TED2024: The Brave and the Brilliant, hosted by Chris Anderson, Monique Ruff-Bell and Helen Walters

When and where: Monday, April 15, 2024, at the Vancouver Convention Centre in Vancouver, BC, Canada

Speakers: Aziz Abu Sarah, Maoz Inon, Demis Hassabis, Kristine McDivitt Tompkins, RuPaul Charles, Willie Williams, Angus Hervey

A special partner shoutout: TED thanks to our TED2024 strategic partners PwC, Adobe, Schneider Electric and Northwestern Mutual

Performance: Writer, musician and comedian Elle Cordova shares a poem she wrote about the Big Bang and, joined by guitarist Toni Lindgren, plays “Carl Sagan” — an original song about the endless scroll of social media and our desire to reach out to others across the void.

The talks in brief:

Peacemakers Aziz Abu Sarah and Maoz Inon discuss the immeasurable tragedies they’ve experienced growing up in Palestine and Israel, respectively — and how they choose reconciliation over revenge, again and again. With a fierce belief in a better future, they work to foster opportunities for connection and understanding across divides, collectively building hope for peace.

DeepMind cofounder Demis Hassabis shows how AI might solve humanity’s “big questions” by identifying patterns in impossibly huge (and humanly incomprehensible) datasets. In conversation with head of TED Chris Anderson, Hassabis explores AI from its game-playing, algorithmic roots to the current high-powered arms race.

Since the 1990s, Kristine McDivitt Tompkins, the president of Tompkins Conservation and the former CEO of Patagonia, has worked with her husband to rewild more than two million acres of crucial habitat in the southernmost regions of Argentina and Chile. She explains how actively restoring natural territories and bringing back missing species can heal the planet amidst our ongoing climate and extinction crises.

In an engaging dish session, drag superstar RuPaul Charles takes the stage to debut “On the Spot,” TED’s new interactive Q&A format. Giving rapid-fire responses to a stream of unexpected questions, Ru enlightens us on everything from the power of drag to expand our definitions of self to the value of not taking anything too seriously.

Redefining the boundaries of live entertainment, multimedia show director Willie Williams showcases his work designing and directing transcendent shows for artists like U2, David Bowie and many more. He shares his thinking on how to weave cutting-edge tech with imaginative visuals to create unforgettable experiences and connections.

Whether or not you believe that the world is on track for imminent doom might depend on where you get your news, says Angus Hervey, founder of Fix The News. He delivers good news for humanity that the media cycle missed last year, from advances in clean energy technologies to declining rates of extreme poverty, crime and disease.

TED2024, held April 15-19, 2024, in Vancouver, BC, Canada, is a week of talks, discovery sessions, excursions, dinners, performances and more celebrating “The Brave and the Brilliant.” Special thanks to our strategic partners PwC, Adobe, Schneider Electric and Northwestern Mutual.