About | TEDxEdges

TED & TEDx

About TED

TED is an annual event where some of the world’s leading thinkers and doers are invited to share what they are most passionate about. “TED” stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design — three broad subject areas that are, collectively, shaping our future. And in fact, the event is broader still, showcasing ideas that matter in any discipline. Attendees have called it “the ultimate brain spa” and “a four-day journey into the future.” The diverse audience — CEOs, scientists, creatives, philanthropists — is almost as extraordinary as the speakers, who have included Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Jane Goodall, Frank Gehry, Paul Simon, Sir Richard Branson, Philippe Starck and Bono.

TED was first held in Monterey, California, in 1984. In 2001, Chris Anderson’s Sapling Foundation acquired TED from its founder, Richard Saul Wurman. In recent years, TED has expanded to include an international conference, TEDGlobal; media initiatives, including TED Talks and TED.com; and the TED Prize. TED2010, “What the world Needs Now,” will be held Feb 9-13, 2010, in Long Beach, California, with a simulcast event in Palm Springs, California. TEDGlobal 2009, “The Substance of Things Not Seen,” will be held July 21-24, 2009, in Oxford, UK and TEDIndia will be held in November 2009.

About TEDx, x=independently organized event

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x=independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.*

(*Subject to certain rules and regulations)

TEDxEdges

About TEDxEdges

This conference will debate the technological models to be adopted by Portugal, and confront those policies with other international practices, such those of Finland and Israel, and other rather small and periphery countries. Future editions will present the cases of other countries at the “Edges.” TEDxEdges also aspires to start a wider entrepreneurial cultural movement that will be announced soon.

Mission

In his "Inconvenient Truth" the ex-Vice President of the USA, Mr. Al Gore has popularized that in Mandarin, the word "threat" also means "opportunity". In the face of economic stagnation, Portugal has a set of opportunities suited to its local resources and where it shows it is "going strong", in technology areas that have relatively low entry costs and that are affordable to the intensity of capital available in the country and the (still) scarce skilled entrepreneurs, in areas, such as energy, biotechnology and especially the software for niche markets - just look to some of Portugal's most successful technological companies that we had in the first edition of TEDxEdges. It is precisely this new generation of companies that are able to turn technology into greater productivity, companies such as Outsystems that provides solutions to create Web sites with built-in logic in a simple and quick manner.

Another common point is that these companies are the result from the entrepreneurship of their creators who, with great perseverance, can now show notable successes with companies almost exclusively devoted to international markets, that did not need to internationalize because they are part of a generation of companies for whom the natural market was, since its inception, the global market.

TEDxEdges has as its main goal the promotion of a Portuguese high-tech cluster, outlining a new technological model for Portugal towards the creation of new wealth.

Organization

André Marquet TEDx Edges Event Manager

André Marquet works as product manager for WIT-Software, an innovative company that creates smartphone applications and web services for telecommunication and media companies, prior he worked as Systems Engineer for Nokia Siemens Networks, where he was responsible for designing the web interface technologies for IPTV. Before, he was working as IT manager for ICEP (now AICEP), an agency of the Portuguese government, and before that, he was a pre-sales engineer for EFACEC, in international offices. He began his career with ADETTI, working as a researcher while completing his Master's degree in computer and telecommunications from ISCTE of Lisbon, after having earned a degree from the same University in 2003. He has authored/co-authored several papers and book chapters, as well as been granted with national and international patents related to automatic video quality estimation. Andre Marquet is a non-executive shareholder of Alarcom, a private security company.
Artur Arsénio TEDxEdges Associate

Artur Arsenio (PhD) received his doctoral degree in Computer Science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston/US, and both his MsC and Licenciatura Degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Instituto Superior Técnico / Universidade Técnica de Lisboa. At MIT, he concluded a minor program at the MIT Sloan School of Management with an emphasis on Technology Strategy. He was also enrolled as a PhD candidate in Mechanical Engineering at MIT during two years. In 2005 he joined Siemens as a solution leader arquitect on IPTV and SmartHome project leading several international teams, and he is currently a R&D expert at Nokia Siemens Networks S.A., being responsible for Innovation Management at NSN Portugal. He is an Assistant Professor at Instituto Superior Técnico in Computer Networks Engineering and Computer Science. He has been the recipient of several innovation and scientific awards, and has been acting as Journal Editor, Session Chairman, Reviewer and Committee Member for several IEEE conferences and journals. He has authored/co-authored more than 50 papers in book chapters, journals and conferences, as well as several international patent applications. He is the President of the MIT Club of Portugal and Vice-President of the Fulbrighters Portugal alumni association.
Rui Ribeiro TEDxEdges Associate

Rui Ribeiro is the Director of LISS - Lusofona Information Systems School and IT Director at "Estradas de Portugal", a public Portuguese company. Mr. Ribeiro was also responsible for 11 years for the area of Consulting Services at Sybase in Portugal. He is a Doctoral candidate at ISCTE, has an MBA from the Portuguese Catholic University and a Degree in Computer Science Engineering from Instituto Superior Técnico.