TEDGlobal Para Todos takes over Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

 

Throughout the city of Rio de Janeiro, venues that value education will be able to watch the TEDGlobal 2014 conference through a free livestream. Photo: Thinkstock

“TEDGlobal Para Todos” means “TEDGlobal For Everyone.” And when the TEDGlobal 2014 conference kicks off at the Copacabana Palace Hotel in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Monday, October 6, people all over the city will be able to catch the amazing lineup of speakers in livestreams all across town.

More than 40 venues in Rio will stream the conference for free to the public through TEDGlobal Para Todos. All talks will be translated into Portuguese in real-time, so that they are accessible to a wide swath of the city’s population. This program to bring the conference out into its host city was born from the success of a similar experiment during this year’s TED conference in Vancouver, Canada. In Rio, sustainability consultant Gwendoline de Ganay has been helping to coordinate the effort by reaching out to local public schools, universities, cultural centers, libraries, non-profits and NGOs.

“Any organization can sign up,” she says, “But we’re especially interested in finding venues that value education.”

One of the venues that will be broadcasting TEDGlobal is Arena Jovelina Perola Negra, a community theater in Pavuna, in the North Zone neighborhood, an area made up of Rio’s favelas. “Rio has a lot of social divides,” explains Taciana Abreu, director of planning at creative agency WMCann, who’s in charge of organizing this livestream gathering. “Most of the city’s wealth is in the South Zone. It’s also where the main cultural events are, along with the city center and a small part of the West Zone. I wanted at least one transmission line [from TEDGlobal] to the North Zone of the city. And Arena Jovelina Perola Negra is a great cultural catalyst in the region.”

Abreu and her team are especially excited for the Brazilian speakers at TEDGlobal 2014, including Vik Muniz, José Padilha, Bruno Torturra, Alessandra Orofino, Ilona Szabó de Carvalho and Vincent Moon. They are also thrilled that all TEDGlobal talks will be translated into Portuguese. Abreu and team hope that the livestream event helps Arena Jovelina become more prominent on the broader cultural map of the city.

Across town, Ursulla Araujo is preparing livestream events in five creative co-working spaces: Casa 24, CasaCéu & Casa Sou.l, Catete92, Goma and Templo. “We are connected by a sense of community. Each location has a character and an identity,” she explains. Araujo is excited for many of the same talks. But one that has her especially excited: hearing from Tashka Yawanawá, chief of the Yawanawá people of the Amazon.

In addition to Araujo and Abreu’s events, viewers can also catch the livestream at MAC Nitéroi, the Museum of Contemporary Art of the municipality of Nitéroi. Events will also take place at Junior Achievement, an NGO that promotes entrepreneurial and leadership values to kids; the Bibliotéca Parque Estadual, a public library in the business center (“centro”) of Rio de Janeiro; and the Center for Digital Inclusion, a social enterprise dedicated to bridges the digital divide.

Overall, TED Para Todos organizer Ganay is looking forward to the upcoming week of ideas. “TEDGlobal Para Todos takes TED’s motto of ‘Ideas Worth Spreading,’ to another level,” she says.

And the mayor of Rio de Janeiro, Eduardo Paes, agrees. (Watch his TED Talk, “The four commandments of cities.”) He says, “Rio is proud to be hosting TEDGlobal this year, and we are very pleased that the organizers are allowing interested Cariocas to watch the free simulcast. Rio is a very dynamic city, a hub of innovation and experimentation, and that aligns well with TED’s focus on impactful ideas.”

Questions about TEDGlobal Para Todos? Write live@ted.com.