TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an annual conference that defines its mission as "ideas worth spreading". The lectures, also called TED Talks, cover a broad set of topics including science, arts and design, politics, education, culture, business, global issues, technology and development, and entertainment. Speakers have included such people as former U.S. President Bill Clinton, Nobel laureates James D. Watson, Murray Gell-Mann, and Al Gore, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, and Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page. The TED staff is headquartered in New York City and Vancouver. The conference has been held in Monterey, California, since its founding, but as of 2009 is being held in Long Beach, California due to an increased number of attendees. The TED conference also has a companion conference, TED Global, held in varying locations. Approximately 370 TED talks are provided for free viewing online. As of January 2009, talks had been viewed over 90 million times by more than 15 million people. (via Wikipedia)