(Applause)
Thank you.
I can't tell you how incredible it is to be here today, at the 2nd TEDxUSC event.
It was just a year ago that TED launched this little experiment called TEDx,
where x equals independently organized events,
and it basically gives anybody, anywhere in the world
the opportunity to host a TED-like event.
Now as these said, this idea's been brewing for sometime at TED.
The idea came from a number of different places.
Firstly, about 4 years ago, we put TED talks online for free.
Up until then, the TED conference had been an exclusive conference
that a few people went to.
About 230 million people have seen TED talks to date,
which has transformed the TED brand.
More and more people were coming up to us and asking us
if they could hold an official TED conference in their city or country.
And, that idea was very hard to scale.
Finally, as we thought through it
we really felt that TED talks are sometimes better to view in a group
where you could have a discussion around them
rather than in a solitary way in front of your computer.
So, it was the converging of these ideas out of which the TEDx concept arose.
So, a year ago, there had been one TEDx event and that was TEDxUSC.
(Applause)
So, what I wanted to do for you now is
just paint a brief picture of what has transpired over the last year
since the first TEDx event at USC happened.
Basically, we've had 500 TEDx events.
We have 500 more planned for this year.
TEDx events have been held in 70 countries in 37 different languages.
We've had TEDx events on a 100 different campuses,
over 100 more planned for the rest of this year.
And approximately about 50,000 people have attended TEDx events.
These TEDx events don't all look like this.
They've taken on very different sizes and shapes and formats,
we've had everything from an incredible event that happened
in one of the largest shanty towns in the world, where the organizer put a sheet on the wall
projected some TED talks, and invited some speakers.
To a TEDxKids event at SMU where 300 kids from schools
throughout the Dallas Fort Worth area attended.
To an incredible event that happened in Dubai. That was like a day at TED.
To a little event that happened in a village in sourthern India
where the organizer had to go through this amazing personal journey
and fight with the elders of the village to allow them to hold the TEDx event
because they felt really threatened about a conference that was about ideas.
So, we're on this amazing journey together,
and we at TED believe that it'll be transformative
and it's thanks to you USC,
and Christina and her team that have made this possible.
And in closing, I just want to say
a lot of people come up to me and they say
"We've had this amazing experience, we've shared some good ideas, we've been inspired.
It's been incredible. What can we do now?"
So, I challenge all of you to go off into your communities,
into under-privileged neighborhoods, to schools, to libraries,
and hold a little TEDx event, show some TED talks,
have a discussion arond them, and help us spread ideas worth spreading.
I just wanted to end one last time by saying thank you to USC for having the trust
and jumping on board this journey before the journey had even began.
Thank you.