At the time of this talk, TED’s future was in the balance. Its founder, Richard Saul Wurman, had just sold the conference to Chris Anderson’s foundation, and had announced that this 2002 conference was the last TED he would run. Many in the audience had concluded that the conference would not survive the transition to a new owner, and few had signed up for the following year’s event. This was Anderson’s attempt to persuade TEDsters that the conference had a future, and that the transition from a for-profit event, to one owned by a nonprofit, could work. The talk took place five months after September 11, and at the very bottom of the dot-com stock market bust, when many in the room had lost 90% or more of their net worth. Here, Anderson shares his own story — and his vision for what TED can become.