Vancouver marks a decade of TED talks

When Sunny Bates visited Vancouver the first time the city hosted the TED conference in 2014, one word came to mind.

"Beautiful," said the executive recruiter visiting once again from New York City for this week's event. 

Bates first started attending TED conferences in 1992 when they were held in Southern California and has now been to every iteration in Vancouver.

The city's sparkling waterfront, framing mountains and welcoming nature make it a perfect fit for the world-renowned conference, Bates said. 

"This combination of hotels, beauty, great theatre, great venue, enough density so people can run into each other as serendipity," said Bates. "I think, for the flagship for TED, I think that's hard to duplicate. Where else would it go?"

The success of the Vancouver TED conference — known for its short, often inspiring talks on technology, entertainment and design — is due in part, say organizers, to the city's beauty but also the willingness of the Vancouver Convention Centre to play along.

"They use the space exceptionally well and I think their attendees love Vancouver an awful lot," said Craig Lehto, the convention centre's general manager.

"I think the best way to put it is we've grown with them. Simple? Never," he said. "But I think good things like this are never simple. They're a challenge."

One challenge was the design and implementation of a custom-built theatre set up every year using 8,000 pieces of Douglas fir timber from the Pacific Northwest.

"We're a small show with a big footprint," said Monique Ruff-Bell, TED's chief program and strategy officer for the past two years.

Indeed, TED's 2,000 attendees fall far short of the number of people at some of the other 400 events the convention centre hosts each year, some of which have up to 12,000 attendees.

Tourism advocates say TED punches above its weight.

"TED, in bringing the kinds of people that it attracts from around the world ... it's not just about tourism. It's about connecting those decision makers hopefully with people in our city who are trying to make this city a better place," said Royce Chwin, president and CEO of Destination Vancouver.

Ruff-Bell says many of TED's influential speakers and attendees have only become fonder of Vancouver over the years and often extend their trips to take in more of the city or other parts of B.C.

"This is … marked on their calendars years in advance about coming here and they get to branch out," she said. "This is a global destination and we have people from all over the world come and utilize this wonderful place."

Bad behaviour and COVID-19

The Vancouver event has not been without challenges though.

In 2017, two men were ejected over complaints of sexual harassment, which forced organizers to revisit and bolster its code of conduct policies.

In 2020, the conference was forced online and did not come to Vancouver at all in 2021 because of COVID-19. When it returned as an in-person event, attendees were tested at special booths and asked to wear masks.

Ruff-Bell said there was uncertainty in 2022 about whether the precautions would prevent the conference from becoming a super-spreader event. 

"We were very uneasy going in," she said. "We went above and beyond mandates, we did our research, we did our due diligence. We did not become a super-spreader event, thank goodness."

There have also been protests in and around the conference related to speakers, including billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates who angered some protesters in 2022 with his support of vaccinations to manage the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Ruff-Bell said the conference doesn't shy away from controversy and does not try to silence voices, whether they come from within or outside the conference.

"I have to say Canadians are very nice people because they told us this was going to happen in advance so we got to plan for it, so that was nice," she said about the Gates protest.

Ruff-Bell said TED is under contract for at least a few more years in Vancouver, but did not rule out the possibility that the conference might one day move to a different city. 

Meanwhile, for Lehto and the convention centre, meeting with prospective clients looking to host conferences in Vancouver often involves mention of TED's 10-year history in the city.

"It's a huge calling card," he said. "That's the kind of event that TED is. It attracts an awful lot of attention in the industry."