TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) is a global set of conferences owned by the private non-profit Sapling Foundation, formed to disseminate "ideas worth spreading."

TED was founded in 1984 as a one-off event and the conference was held annually from 1990 in Monterey, California. TED's early emphasis was largely technology and design, consistent with a Silicon Valley center of gravity. The events are now held in Long Beach and Palm Springs in the U.S. and in Europe and Asia, offering live streaming of the talks. They address an increasingly wide range of topics within the research and practice of science and culture. The speakers are given a maximum of 18 minutes to present their ideas in the most innovative and engaging ways they can. Past presenters include Bill Clinton, Jane Goodall, Malcolm Gladwell, Al Gore, Gordon Brown, Richard Dawkins, Bill Gates, educator Salman Khan, Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and many Nobel Prize winners. TED's current curator is the British former computer journalist and magazine publisher Chris Anderson.

Amy J. C. Cuddy is an American social psychologist known for her studies of the relations between stereotyping and behavior. She is Associate Professor in the Negotiation, Organizations & Markets Unit at Harvard Business School.

Cuddy studies the origins and outcomes of how people judge and influence each other. She has conducted experimental and correlational research on stereotyping and discrimination against various groups (e.g., Asian Americans, elderly people, Latinos, working mothers), the causes and consequences of feeling ambivalent emotions (e.g., envy and pity), nonverbal behavior and communication, and hormonal responses to social stimuli. Amy Cuddy was listed #1 in Time Magazine's list of "Game Changers, ...innovators and problem-solvers that are inspiring change in America".

She is a sought-after speaker on the psychology of power, influence, nonverbal communication, and prejudice.

Cuddy holds a PhD in Social Psychology from Princeton University, a MA in Social Psychology from Princeton University and BA in Social Psychology from the University of Colorado.

Cameron Russell (born June 14, 1987^{[citation needed]}) is an American fashion model.

Cameron Russell was born in Boston, and raised in Cambridge. Her mother is Robin Chase, founder of ZipCar. Russell displayed an interest in politics at an early age, and friends who had worked on the Clinton Presidential election campaign arranged a meeting on June 5, 1998 (when she was 10) with Bill Clinton after he delivered a speech at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His advice to her was to stay in school, get to know as many different types of people as she could, and to understand their dreams and aspirations.^{[citation needed]} She graduated from the Commonwealth School in 2005.

Russell's mother had a friend who worked at Ford Models agency, and Russell decided to sign with that agency in 2004. She later moved on to DNA Model Management in 2006, and is currently represented by Women Management with whom she signed in 2008.

Since beginning her modeling career part-time at the age of 16, Russell has worked with numerous successful photographers including Steven Meisel, Craig McDean, and Nick Knight among others, in such magazines as Vogue, Paris Vogue, Vogue Italia, W, Self Service and Numéro. She has featured in advertising campaigns for companies including Calvin Klein, Armani, Oscar de la Renta, and Yves Saint Laurent.

Susan Cain is an American writer and lecturer.

Cain is author of the 2012 non-fiction book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking, which argues that modern Western culture undervalues the traits and capabilities of introverted people.

Cain attended Princeton University and Harvard Law School. She worked first as an attorney, and then as a negotiations consultant. Cain's interest in writing about introversion reportedly stemmed from her own difficulties with public speaking, which made Harvard Law School "a trial."

Cain left her careers in corporate law and consulting, for a quieter life of writing at home with her family. She wrote that she looks back on her years as a Wall Street lawyer "as time spent in a foreign country."

When asked what she would be doing if she were not a writer, Cain explained that she would be a research psychologist, saying she is insatiably curious about human nature.

Cain explained that in writing Quiet, she was fueled by the passion and indignation that she imagined fueled the 1963 feminist book, The Feminine Mystique. Cain likened Introverts today to women at that time--second-class citizens with gigantic amounts of untapped talent. Saying that most introverts aren’t aware of how they are constantly spending their time in ways that they would prefer not to be and have been doing so all their lives, Cain explained that she was trying to give people entitlement in their own minds to be who they are.

Amanda MacKinnon Gaiman Palmer (born April 30, 1976), sometimes known as Amanda Fucking Palmer, is an American performer who first rose to prominence as the lead singer, pianist, and lyricist/composer of the duo The Dresden Dolls. She has since started a solo career, and is also one half of the duo Evelyn Evelyn.

Palmer was born in New York City's Mount Sinai Hospital, and grew up in Lexington, Massachusetts. She attended Lexington High School, where she was involved in the drama department, and attended Wesleyan University where she was a member of the Eclectic Society. She staged performances based on work by the Legendary Pink Dots, an early influence, and was involved in the Legendary Pink Dots electronic mailing list, Cloud Zero.^{[citation needed]} She then formed the Shadowbox Collective, devoted to street theatre and putting on theatrical shows (such as the 2002 play, Hotel Blanc, which she directed).

With an interest in the performing arts, both in music and in theatre, Palmer spent time busking as a living statue called "The Eight Foot Bride" in Harvard Square, Cambridge; Edinburgh, Scotland; Australia (where she met Jason Webley); as well as many other locations. She references this line of work on The Dresden Dolls' self-titled CD, with the song "The Perfect Fit":