Vancouver will play host to the annual TED conference in 2014 and 2015, the non-profit group announced Monday.
TED -- which stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design -- said Vancouver was selected for a number of reasons, including its recognized livability, world class amenities and “stunning natural beauty.”
"We thought hard about how to make the 30th-anniversary TED conference truly memorable, and the Vancouver region offers the perfect setting for us," TED Curator Chris Anderson said.
Anderson said Vancouver is already the home to the group’s conference operations team and trips to the city have always been inspiring.
"It's cosmopolitan, energetic, innovative, yet with unrivaled natural beauty,” he said.
The conference will take place in the new Vancouver Convention Centre and TED will custom design its own theatre in the centre.
The group, which will turn 30 next year, said moving the conference from its current venue in Long Beach, Calif., to Vancouver was partly due to the international scope of its work.
“TED's remit is now global, not just American – yet the move preserves the conference's West Coast roots,” the company said in a statement.
TED also announced Monday that it would be moving its TEDActive conference to nearby Whistler, B.C. The conference is currently held in Palm Springs, Calif.
Both conferences will take place from March 17-21, 2014. Registration for the events opens next week, on Feb. 11.
The non-profit organization’s now-famous annual conferences feature talks by invited guests. Each guest is challenged by TED to give “the talk of their lives” in 18 minutes or less.
The guests come from a variety of backgrounds including scientists, CEOs, designers, authors, musicians and comedians. TED touts the guests as the “world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers.”
Past TED speakers include Bill Gates, WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange, Al Gore and magician David Blaine.
The best and most popular talks can be viewed for free on TED’s website, and are categorized under themes such as most “jaw-dropping,” “courageous,” “beautiful,” “funny” and “inspiring.”
