TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design and since 1984, they’ve been bringing together some of the world’s brightest thinkers and doers for an annual conference. Speakers are challenged to give ‘the talk of their lives’ – in just 18 minutes.

Malcolm Gladwell is a New Yorker magazine columnist, whose book The Tipping Point became a worldwide bestseller. His follow-up, Blink, was an equally compelling mix of fact, anecdote and quirky ideas.

His TED presentation on the pursuit of happiness takes him from Pepsi to coffee to spaghetti sauce – and teaches us a thing or two about human behaviour and customer surveys.

Sir Ken Robinson is a creativity expert whose message is simple: schools kill creativity. And as the former head of the UK government’s advisory committee on creative and cultural education, he should know.

It’s an intelligent and thought-provoking presentation, but above all, it’s very, very funny, jumping with effortless ease from the Royal Ballet Company to nativity plays to Shakespeare’s father.

I thought a friend of mine would enjoy it as an ex-drama teacher. And she did – more than I suspected, since it turned out she knows him.

“Sir Ken? When I worked with him in the 80s, he was just plain old Ken,” she said, with just a hint of title envy.

Enjoy.

• Malcolm Gladwell: What we can learn from spaghetti sauce
• Sir Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity?

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