Dear TEDx India Licensees,

Your TEDx community is a community based on trust and without that trust, the fabric of what we are as a community does not exist. When one person breaks the rules, the entire community is affected and the strength and credibility of the community is put into question.

In India, unlike elsewhere in the world, there have been repeated violations of the TEDx rules. We have been in endless discussion internally and externally with the community in India on how to handle this. Some of the steps we have already put in place to help manage this are not working, such as:

Appointing additional TEDx Ambassadors to India
Creating a more rigorous due diligence process for those entering the community.

These steps have not helped.

We have put specific rules in place that are key to maintaining the TEDx DNA. These rules are non-negotiable. Violation of these rules will result in removal of your license and the name of your TEDx event being frozen for 12 months. There can be:

No sponsor logos on stage
No sponsors giving TEDx talks on stage
No TED branding instead of TEDx
No running a TEDx event one day and another event the next day that uses the same funding and sometimes the same speakers - we call this co-branding
No exceeding 100 attendee limit

We repeatedly discover in India TEDx events:

Violation of the 100 person rule - events having over 100 people when the Primary Licensee has not attended TED. This rule is non-negotiable.
Sponsors speaking on the stage, one of the absolute biggest violations of the TEDx DNA.
Students hosting a TEDx events as part of a campus festival or another event.
Incorrect TEDx logos on stage or sponsor logos on stage.
Individuals intentionally blurring the difference between TED and TEDx.
Speakers who abuse the TEDx platform by turning their speaking opportunity into a promotion for themselves or a book tour.
Speaker speaking at more than two TEDx events in any given year, such as Nitin Gupta, please do not book him at your event, he is currently on our speaker blacklist.

The most important part of hosting a TEDx event is motivation. TEDx is about giving back to your community in an honest, sincere, selfless and non ego-driven way.

TEDx organizers care deeply about their community and the world around them in an authentic way. If you are hosting a TEDx events because it will look good on your resume, because you are a motivation speaker and it gives you a platform or because it is the "in thing" to do, you are not in this for the right reason!

Please take a moment to ask yourself - why am I doing this? If the reason does not match with the DNA of TEDx please cancel your license immediately by emailing davis@ted.com.

TEDxChennai

Most recently, it has also come to our attention that TEDxChennai violated the rules by holding a press conference with sponsors, having a venue sponsor as a speaker on stage and speakers that were part of another conference. After consulting with the TEDx community, TEDx Ambassadors and organizer Kiruba Shankar, we have decided to take the following steps:

We will be canceling the TEDxChennai license
Kiruba Shankar has agree to step down from his position as TEDx Ambassador in India

Next steps

In order to ensure your community grows in strength and quality, we will be taking additional steps in allocating TEDx licensees in India. We are working on the list of steps this week. If you have any thoughts or suggestions please email tedx@ted.com by Monday, November 19th.

We are incredibly proud of so many of the TEDx events that have come out of India and what you have been able to achieve as a community. We so appreciate those of you who help us ensure day in and day out that the spirit of TED and TEDx and the quality of the TEDx events is upheld.

At the end of the day this is your community, and it is in your best interest to try to build a healthy, robust community that embrace the rules and the spirit of trust that is TEDx. We are looking forward to working with you on this.

Best,
The TEDx Team