10 September 2009

TEDIndia: Announcing the speaker lineup

TEDIndia co-host Lakshmi Pratury at TEDGlobal, July 2009. Today in India, she announced the speaker line-up for November’s upcoming TEDIndia conference.

Today, the TEDIndia team unveiled 40 speakers and performers for TEDIndia, to be held in Mysore, November 4-7, 2009 — the first TED event ever in India.

Speakers range from artist A. Balasubramaniam to Tony Hsieh, the CEO of Zappos.com … from social entrepreneur Kavita Ramdas to dictionary innovator Erin McKean … from a Sesame Street star to Shashi Tharoor, India’s Minister of State for External Affairs … an inspirational and unusual mix of people from diverse disciplines. Doctor and researcher Hans Rosling will share surprising data on international health; the founder of Aveda, Horst Rechelbacher, will talk about his new life as an ecopreneur; and mythologist Devdutt Pattanaik will talk about the surprising link between mythology and business. They’ll be part of a fast-paced, highly curated three-day stage program featuring TED’s famous 18-minute talks, plus music, comedy, dance, short talks, video interludes and other surprises.

And because the theme of TEDIndia is “The Future Beckons,” the event will welcome many young minds with stimulating ideas. Among the new voices from India and around the world will be Ryan Lobo, photographer and documentary filmmaker; Pranav Mistry, of the MIT Media Lab, the genius behind the blockbuster SixthSense demo; and Mukul Deora, the rapper and producer. Additionally, 100 TEDIndia Fellows will be announced next week.

See the full list of speakers and performers below. Even more speakers and special guests will be announced closer to the conference.

Register for TEDIndia >>

Download the TEDIndia speaker line-up announcement >>

Watch the TEDIndia preview video >>

TEDIndia speakers:
Anand Mahindra, managing director, Mahindra and Mahindra
Anil Gupta, from IIM Ahmedabad, the founder of the Honeybee Network
Anupam Mishra, expert on water harvesting
A. Balasubramaniam, artist
Banny Banerjee, architect
C.K. Prahalad, management and innovation guru
Charles Anderson, marine biologist
Devdutt Pattanaik, mythologist
Erin McKean, editor of the new online dictionary Wordnik
Eve Ensler, playwright and activist
Hans Rosling, medical researcher and data wizard
Harsha Bogle, cricket commentator
Horst Rechelbacher, founder of Aveda and Intelligent Nutrients
Jib Ellison, sustainability expert
Kamal Haasan, film actor and director
Kavita Ramdas, president and CEO of Global Fund for Women
Mallika Sarabhai, social entrepreneur and performer
Matthew Spacie, founder, Magic Bus
Pawan Sinha, MIT vision researcher and head of Project Prakash
Pranav Mistry, MIT grad student and inventor of SixthSense
R.A. Mashelkar, business and innovation guru
Robert Thurman, Buddhist scholar
Romulus Whitaker, herpetologist
Ryan Lobo, photographer and documentary filmmaker
Sadguru Jaggi Vasudev, yogi and founder of Isha Foundation
Sashwati Banerjee of “Sesame Street”
Sendhil Mullainathan, economist
Shamsul Wares, architect
Shashi Tharoor, India’s Minister of State for External Affairs
Shekhar Kapur, film director and producer
Shukla Bose, founder, Parikrama Humanity Foundation
Sunitha Krishnan, activist against human trafficking
Tony Hsieh, CEO, Zappos.com

Performers:
Ananda Shankar Jayant, dancer
Anil Srinivasan and Sikkil GuruCharan, classical musicians
Dan Nainan, comedian
Mukul Deora, rapper and producer
Sidi Goma, African Sufi dance troupe
Usha Uthup, legendary singer

Photo credit: TED / James Duncan Davidson

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