What is TEDx?

While helping out at TEDx Canberra 2011 today, at the National Library of Australia (NLA) in Canberra, I was asked "What is TEDx Canberra?". I said that TEDx is a local version of an event where people speak on ideas, which started 20 years ago in California and that this was the second to be held in Canberra. But I was asked what "TED" stood for, so I thought I should look it up:

TED (Technology Entertainment and Design) is a global set of conferences owned by the private non-profit Sapling Foundation, formed to disseminate "ideas worth spreading."

TED was founded in 1984^[1] as a one-off event and the conference was held annually from 1990 in Monterey, California.^{[3] ...}

TED grants licenses to third parties to hold free TEDx events in cities around the world. <sup>[26]

From:</sup> TED (conference), Wikipedia, 11 September 2011 at 18:15.

The first TEDx Canberra was held at the National Library of Aus­tralia on 24 Octo­ber 2010.