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Program Our home in Long Beach

In 2012, we'll return for the fourth 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. Before making the move, we scoured the U.S. for a new venue that would give us some breathing room, while retaining all the qualities that made Monterey so special. We found this in Long Beach, California. It will make a spectacular long-term home for TED.

Why move?

At TED2008, we received clear feedback from many of you that we had simply outgrown the Monterey Conference Center. With 1,300 people attending, and only 500 seats in the Main Hall, we were faced with long queues for the Main Hall and, on occasions, an unseemly crush. We believed we could do better.

A TED-like environment

At Long Beach, we found a theater that can accommodate all our attendees, while retaining Monterey's wonderful sense of intimacy and energy. It's bigger, yes, but it's beautifully intimate.

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.

For conversation breaks: TED's Social Spaces

We’ve designed the conference to make it easy for subcommunities to connect and engage. There are nine different Social Spaces, each with a different flavor: a tent, a dome and an eco village on the fountain plaza, and six amazing spaces inside the theater complex. They offer not just cool things to look at, but refreshments, simulcast 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.

8 reasons we love Long Beach:
  • A bigger theater -- so all attendees get a Main Hall pass
  • The modern, flexible stage, where we can do big things
  • Simulcast is a choice rather than a necessity
  • Fantastic places for parties and dinners, including the great 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 intimate Long Beach Airport
  • Long Beach Harbor and a certain, um, very long beach
  • February weather is usually terrific