Chris Anderson is an American businessman who is best known as the curator of the annual TED conference (technology, entertainment, design), at which people on the conference list can share their ideas. Chris is also a permanent TED host.
Those who have heard inspirational stories from conference participants become regular spectators of this amazing event, because unique ideas are voiced and unique people speak at it.
Biography
Anderson was born in Pakistan in 1957, in a family of English nationals. His father was an eye surgeon and at the same time a missionary - an evangelical Christian. He led a mobile hospital in rural Pakistan, India, and Afghanistan. Chris still has two sisters - the eldest and younger.
The childhood of the future entrepreneur passed in the eastern countries. When it was time to go to school, his parents first sent him to Woodstock School in the Himalayan Mountains of Massouri in India, and then he moved to the boarding school Monkton Combe, already in England.
Chris graduated from Oxford University. At first he became interested in physics, and then moved to the Faculty of Philosophy, and also studied economics and politics. He received a specialist diploma in these subjects in 1978.
Career
Anderson began his career in journalism: he worked in newspapers and on the radio. He prepared and ran a worldwide news service in the Seychelles - it was a pirate radio station.
Returning to the UK in 1984, Anderson became interested in the idea of introducing home computers into the everyday life of ordinary people. Therefore, he became an editor in the first two English computer magazines: "Personal Computer Games" and "Zzap! 64".
A year later, he founded Future Publishing, which published computer magazines. Anderson invested all his money in this business and took a loan of $ 25, 000. Initially, the new company focused on specialized computer publications, but later he expanded it to other areas: music, video games, technology and design. Magazines were very popular: their circulation doubled annually.
In 1994, Anderson moved to the United States. There, he began creating websites, developed Imagine Media, published Business 2.0 magazines, and created the popular IGN video game user site. Ultimately, Anderson merged Imagine and Future, creating in 1999 a company called Future US. In total, he published and led 150 magazines and websites, and his company employed 2, 000 people.
This was already a significant ideological and financial success, and since 1999, the company's shares began to be listed on the London Stock Exchange.
However, Chris was constantly busy with questions about finding new ways to solve complex global problems using the media, technology, entrepreneurship and ideas. And he decided to find the answer to these questions at the TED conference.
Anderson created The Sapling Foundation, a nonprofit foundation, and through it acquired the TED conference. And he began to organize the annual meeting of the luminaries in the field of technology, entertainment and design, which was held in Monterey, California. Since 2009, it takes place in the city of Long Beach (California).
This work took a lot of time and effort, it required a certain creativity and a great contribution of finance. Therefore, Anderson left Future to work only on TED.
He expanded the range of the conference to cover all topics, including science, culture, academia, business and key global issues. He added a fellowship program, which now has around 400 graduates. He also instituted the TED Award, which provides recipients with $ 1 million to support their “one desire to change the world.”
In 2006, TED experimented with publishing some of its speeches on the Internet. Their viral success prompted Anderson to develop the organization as a global media initiative dedicated to “ideas worth spreading.” In June 2015, the organization published its 2000th report on the Internet.
Through an appropriate project, they were translated into more than 100 languages with the help of thousands of volunteers from around the world. So the number of conference attendees has grown to about one billion views per year.
Continuing the strategy of "radical openness", in 2009 Anderson came up with the idea - to conduct TEDx. It consists in the following: the main organization of TED provides free licenses to local organizers who want to organize their own events like TED. Speakers are required to speak for free, and events must be non-profit, with speeches broadcast to TED through Commons Media.
This idea aroused great interest, and more than 10, 000 such events were held in various places, which made it possible to create an archive of 100, 000 performances at TEDx.
Three years later, the TED-Ed program was launched. It offers free instructional videos and tools for students and teachers.
In May 2016, Anderson published a book called TED Talks: The Official TED Public Speaking Guide, which offers tips and tricks for public speaking. Here Chris described in detail how to speak at the conference in order to impress and so that your idea would be further disseminated. The book became a bestseller according to the New York Times.
In April 2018, Anderson announced a significant update to the TED Award, titled Bold Project. He seeks to attract significant funding for bold projects that work for charity.
