I’m back from the mind-boggling TED conference and am detoxing my brain from the incredible stories, experiences, and knowledge shared by the hundreds of shakers and movers present there. My minds exhausted and happy while my bodies trying to catch up all at once. As usual, I’ll point to Tom, Ethan, and Brunos blogs for their incredible recap on the TED speakers this year. As I slowly absorb and digest the many wonders of TED I’ll post them on up with my thoughts. For now, I’ll post a few glimpse of my journey there.

Overall, the TED Experience was incredible as usual with a diverse crowd of individuals craving to learn more about every topic imaginable. There was a new simulcast room with HD plasmas hovering over beds and comfy bean bags, a new chocolate tasting section which was oooo so yummy and satisfying thanks to Vosges, a few demo booths by various sponsors, a big gift bag, a cool IT help desk, an amazing photography studio, an addictive Google Snack bar, and much more. One thing I missed was the Aquarium party that usually happens on Friday night but was instead moved to Tuesday night for the speakers party hosted by Google. This years Grand party took place in an airport hanger which was cool, but by no means as magical as the Aquarium. The after Conference Beach party was very good as previous years ended with no party. I could go on and on about this years event, but much like JJ Abrams comments on his magical box, I’ll keep that to a mystery but post a few pics for a glimpse of my experience. Enjoy!

Okie..here are some pictures with brief thoughts. Pictured above is Tracy Chapman rockin it out….I was lucky and had front stage seats!(thanks katheryn) Other musical performances this year were by Paul Simon, Raul Midon, Jill Sobule, and the classic Thomas Dolby.

Bumptop.. Anand Agarawala of Bumptop gave me a personal demo on his bootcamp Mac. His onstage presentation was flawless, but his computer had some graphics issues(due to some water) which left for a bumpy personal demo….otherwise, this idea has lots of potential and is one to be looked out for! Lots of people much like myself want to see him collaborate with Jef hans Multi-touch screen.

The tech room in High Def set up. In previous years, we streamed in VGA, but this year, we went the HD direction which was was a maga pay off. Images were incredible, if not too sharp.

Tesla Motors all electronic car! This sweet little car jumps from 0-60 in 4 seconds barely making a sound! BMW and Lexus also had their hybrid cars there to test drive.

The great Steelcase crew made beds with plasma to watch..no more complaining that you got no rest during this conference if you were in these.

Bill Clinton giving his TED prize speech during the 3 TED wish prizes.

This years TED prize was streamed on 2nd Life and also into Times Square right after their wishes were made. Their image and wishes were broadcast for over 20 minutes each. Click on the image for one spectacular photo.

I got a chance to talk to JJ Abrams of Lost, Alias, Mission Impossible, and the highly anticipated Star Trek XI. He’s a wonderful person to speak to with loads of inspiration. One story he presented was a scene in MI3 where someone sticks a gun up Tom Cruises nose…well, Tom does’nt like his nose to be touched, hence in the scene, Tom has to play 2 people…the hostag with a grim face, and his own hand as the gunman smashing up against his nose….hehe. JJ also mentioned Tom biting his own hand because he didnt want to bite someone elses hand in another scene.

Me kickin it in the lit up chairs in the airport hanger party! Buh yeah!

Jef Hans Multi Touch wall. Funny thing about Jef is that everyone confused me for him…i guess not enough attendees can tell the difference between their fellow asians.

Some kick butt sound bowls that Bruch Johnston brought along to the beach party. You rub a stick around the bowl and evetually the bowl resonates an incredible sound….very zen.

Theo Jansen brought along one of his captivating creatures to the beach party for everyone to pull and play with. I think that’s Morgan Webb of TechTv/G4 pulling it around. We chatted a bit, but I was overwhelmed by Theos magical creature that I never introduced myself…hi Morgan 😉

Beach Goers loved it. I wish I had video of Theo draggin it back to his car, but there should be some on his webpage. A must watch!

Theres a crew of people from Japan that come every year. I met Harue at the grand party while she was wearing this amazzzing kimono….it rocked!!! I was wearing pink that night so we matched 😉

Bacon+Chocolate by Vosges …hmmm..it was incredible!!!!!!!!!!!! Here are the details:

BranchHome setup an incredible space in the bookstore with a bunch of sustainable goodies. Check them out….I was wanting to buy everything!

Below are some quotes from several speakers printed on moo cards given to us…..not exactly quotes from the conferencee, but just quotes they have said before:

This is the view I had the day after TED ended around 6am from my hotel room….it was a great closure to the mezmerizing week of late nights, hard work, and conversations.

Some non-speaker highlights of the conference:
1. Walking up 2 flights of stairs with Cameron Diaz next to me…but shy me just looked straight with a happy grin.
2. Kidnapping the Google Bar on Friday night for a small party in my hotel room on Saterday.
3. Playing around with an exibition piece along with a stanger, who i later realized was someone I had a crush on in the past.
4. Sitting in the rehersal auditorium room late into the night pretty much by myself when Paul Simon practiced….freakin awesome.
5. Sitting in the Tesla….freaking thing sits low. I’ll own one day… i hope..
6. Meeting a dude that sold his compnay for $$$$$millions yet doesnt have an ego about it…this is hard to come by….then again, i didnt know who he was until after the conference.
7. Getting my name called out by “Will I am” in the AV room…we briefly met before, by I had to run off for a tech issue soon after, hence when he ran by and remembered my name, i was like, cool. He had some sweet kicks on as well.
8. Meeting the Google founders briefly…..Sergey was cooler…Larry seemed shy.
9. Getting stopped by Bill Clintons private secret service dude while I was rushing to go to the restroom….weird, but cool.
10. The usual meeting of passionate, interesting, curious, random peeps I never knew the week before.