TEDx Director Lara Stein speaks during the TEDx Workshop. Photo: Bret Hartman

“What would happen if you wanted a bunch of people to come with you on a journey?”

TED Curator Chris Anderson asked this to a crowd of 100+ TEDx organizers from 43 countries — including Sudan, South Africa, France, China and Egypt — during his talk at the TEDx Workshop on Sunday, June 9, at TEDGlobal 2013 in Edinburgh, Scotland. Anderson was talking about the central problem of speaker prep: how to help your speakers take their audience with them on a journey of ideas. But this question may as well have well been about the journey of the TEDx community, which has exploded from 352 events in its first year to 7,000 events a year, held in 179 countries.

The TEDx Workshop at the gorgeous Lyceum Theatre kicked off a week of immersion in the TED ethos, culture and experience with knowledge-sharing talks from both TED staff and TEDx organizers.

Later, TED staff shared their expertise in small-group Deep Dive sessions nearby at The Hub.

In the afternoon and evening, organizers took a hike to Arthur’s Seat with dinner at Edinburgh Castle.

So — what has happened in 4 years of the global journey that is now TEDx? Events in Iraq, Yemen, Afghanistan and Antarctica; 750 organizers convening for a global learning workshop in Qatar; Chinese TEDx’ers gathering at the Great Wall of China; 150 TEDxWomen events augmenting the stories of women and girls worldwide; 250 TEDx Talks became TED Talks and spread to the audience of TED.com.

TEDx Director Lara Stein also announced TEDxSummit 2014 during the workshop — a continuation of the 2012 Doha summit, which will take place in Berlin in June.

TEDx’ers have already expressed their excitement in community groups: “And the countdown for the next TEDxSummit begins. See you guys there!”

TEDx’ers in a Deep Dive breakout session. Photo: Bret Hartman

Two TEDx’ers on the Arthur’s Seat hike at TEDGlobal 2013. Photo: Bret Hartman

A logo, in bodies. Photo: Bret Hartman

Check out all the photos from the TEDx Workshop at TEDGlobal »

This post originally appeared on the TEDx Blog. Read more about the program here »