What made a single-day conference about technology, entertainment and design become an internet-wide phenomenon with a video that has become an international community of enthusiastic people?

TED was born in 1984 out of Richard Saul Wurman's observations of a strong convergence between three fields: technology, entertainment and design. Harry Marks and he co-founded the first TED. They showcased the compact disc, the e-book and cutting edge 3D graphics from Lucasfilm. Benoit Mandelbrot then showed how to map coastlines with his theory of the fractal geometry.

Despite an impressive lineup,, the event lost money and it was another six years until Wurman or Marks tried to bring it back. In 1990, however the world was in a state of readiness. The TED Conference was established in Monterey, California as an annual event. It was attended by an array of influential people from different disciplines. They were unites by their open-mindedness, curiosity and the discovery of a fascinating secret. TED was an invitation-only event. It's open to all and you're advised to apply for TED now.