John McWhorter speaks at TED@NewYork talent search in 2012. A year later, he took the stage at TED2013. Photo: Ryan Lash

At TED2013 this spring, 34 passionate speakers made it onto the program via a worldwide, 14-city, six-continent Talent Search. The theme of the conference was “The Young. The Wise. The Undiscovered,” and the speakers discovered through the Talent Search Tour gave talks that sent the conference crowd flying to their feet. See: Rose George, Phil Hansen, Allan Savory, Liu Bolin.

So we want to bring fresh voices to TED2014: The Next Chapter too. And thus we are holding TED@NYC on Tuesday, October 8, and inviting anyone to submit an idea for a talk in a 1-minute video.

Who are we looking for? Inventors, teachers, artists, scientists, change agents, storytellers, big-picture thinkers, prodigies, performers, makers, technologists … you name it. (What we’re not looking for: Business proposals, self-promoters, motivational wannabes.) So give it a shot — all the application requires, in addition to biographical details and a link to your 1-minute video online, is the articulation of a great idea (and why you are the best person to deliver it).

The details: TED@NYC will be held in New York, but it’s not limited to local speakers — though out-of-towners are responsible for their own travel and accommodations. (In extraordinary cases, TED may contribute to travel costs.) Each speaker at TED@NYC will get 6 minutes onstage to give a dazzling talk live. The top-rated speakers will be invited to join us at TED2014 in Vancouver to give a longer version of the talk live on the mainstage. Other speakers from TED@NYC may well see their 6-minute talk go live on the homepage of TED.com.

Submit to speak at TED@NYC. Applications are open now. Deadline to apply and submit your video: Sunday, September 1, at 11:59pm EST »

Finalists for the event will be contacted by Monday, Sept. 9. Questions? Write to auditions@ted.com.