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Program Our home in Long Beach

In 2011, we'll return for the third year to the Long Beach Performing Arts Center. Its beautiful, intimate Terrace Theatre, large lobby and elegant plaza are the backdrop for four days of TED magic.

The move to Long Beach

After more than 20 happy but increasingly crowded years in Monterey, the TED Conference relocated to Long Beach in 2009. We scoured the U.S. for a venue that would give us some breathing room, while retaining the intimacy and energy that made Monterey so special. We found this in Long Beach.

The Terrace Theater and the Center Theater

At the center of the TED experience in Long Beach is the Terrace Theater, a beautiful auditorium with aisle-free "continental" seating. For those who prefer casual, food- and laptop-friendly viewing, you'll find inspired Social Spaces and cafés throughout the multi-level lobby and fountain plaza. TED University, featuring short talks by attendees on their area of expertise, is presented at the intimate Center Theater, also part of the Long Beach Performing Arts Center. Presentations from both theaters are also simulcast in comfortable Social Spaces throughout the conference space.

For simulcast and conversation: Social Spaces

We’ve designed the conference space to make it easy to connect and engage. Watch the simulcast or grab a coffee in one of nine Social Spaces, each with a different flavor -- in tents and domes on the fountain plaza, and six amazing spaces inside the theater complex. They offer not just cool things to look at, but food, snacks, coffee, crisp simulcast screens and conversation space. Some of you will want to “graze” all of them. Others may find that one of them is the space you’re most comfortable in and where you can meet the people you want to connect with.

7 reasons we love Long Beach:

  • The modern, flexible stage, where we can do ambitious things
  • Simulcast is a choice (rather than a necessity)
  • Fantastic spots for parties and dinners, including the stylish restaurants and clubs on Pine Street
  • Beautiful hotels within 5 minutes' walking distance or a quick shuttle hop
  • Three airports within an hour's drive, including LAX, Orange County and the handy Long Beach Airport
  • Long Beach Harbor and a certain, um, very long beach
  • Late-February weather is usually terrific