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So ExciTED

by Ruth Ann Harnisch on 02/03/09 at 10:19 am

Ahhhh, the TED Conference, where no matter who you are, what you’ve accomplished, what you have, what you gave, who you know or what you know, you wonder why they let you come. (My best TED friend Kokoe says people who feel special in their daily lives are disconcerted because they’re not so special here. I say it’s good for them!)

The city of Long Beach seems to have the art of wooing conventions down cold. I mean, warm. The welcoming banners are decking the lampposts. The taxi drivers have been briefed on who’s coming. Even after three TED conferences, I felt like a stranger and a newcomer in Monterey, where TED was born and lived for a quarter of a century. Here, everyone’s a newcomer. I like that because it’s in perfectalignment with my theme for 2009: RESET.

Jeff Immelt, CEOof General Electric,explained it in a speechin November:”This economic crists doesn’t represent a cycle.It represents a reset. lt’s an emotional, social, economic reset.” That’s right! Stop waiting for things to “come around.” Stop waiting for things to get back to “normal.”It’s a RESET. Are you ready to join those of us who arecreating the new “normal,” whatever that may be?

The”formerly entitled” withMarie Antoinette mentality are headed for the figurative guillotine, and the doomsayers of Davos didn’t seem too happy about it. But there wereothers at Davos whoreached for the reset button, and some of them will be arriving at TED today.

It’s time for TED – on “reset.”