TEDSports Ready for Debut Conference in Indianapolis

It’s one of those questions that seems wild to ask: Why hasn’t TED done a sports show before?

“TED’s always been fueled by the power of ideas to change the world, right?” said Neelay Bhatt. “Ideas bring people together and sports bring people together. So it was the perfect confluence of creating connections, sparking curiosity, still focusing on the same kinds of areas from innovation to resilience to inspiration and stories to climate change, social justice, new tech. But now it’s all through the lens of sports.”

The inaugural TEDSports will be staged at the Old National Centre in downtown Indianapolis starting September 9. The speakers and program are curated and organized by Next Practice Partners’ Bhatt and Patrick Talty of the Indiana Sports Corp, in collaboration with TED.

“Even before we started the entire conversation where we will do this with the Sports Corp, everyone was on board to say, how can we help? How can we make this happen?” Bhatt said. “This is why Indianapolis — if you want the best of academia, sports tech, sports events, sports, business leadership and now women’s sports — is the place to be.”

The event will include TED Talks, interactive workshops, panels and more. It will include a range of speakers from NCAA President Charlie Baker and former Indiana Fever star Tamika Catchings to those presenting information on climate change in sports, mental health, a magician describing deception in sport, interspecies coaching from a dog trainer and the future of sports in space. Antarctica is the only continent that will not be represented on stage.

The legacy of other TED pillars and themes played a role in determining which themes to present on stage. Being an inaugural event, the focus is less on attendance and more on content, Bhatt said. Equally important is the amplification of the content on TED’s social media channels, which see around 370 million video impressions each month.

Also key is the residual influence of anyone who, in person or via social media, hears about a new idea that sparks an interest in something else. Bhatt knows the effect that can have on a person’s career; as part of the Ohio University Sports Management program, his first sports industry event was TEAMS 2003 in New Orleans as a student volunteer.

“It’s hard to measure in the immediate effect what this might be,” he said. “But you know the ripple effect of some kid 22 years ago going to a TEAMS conference and today those lessons are still with me. At TEAMS it was about experiences, it wasn’t just listening to people talk. These experiences (at TEDSports) will be part of the legacy. The bigger legacy is how these talks can amplify change across all areas.”