The TED conference brings together the world's leading thought leaders and gives technologists, scientists, designers, entrepreneurs and performers the stage to present areas of interest to them.  The talks tend to be polished, interesting and inspiring so worth a look if you haven't seen them before - they are all online at http://www.ted.com

Gordon Brown made a surprise appearance at TED in Oxford today where he talked about the changes global communications are having on the world.  His talk isn't yet online (if anyone finds it let me know) but there are plenty of reports on what he said (see http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda/2009/jul/21/gordonbrown-internet-youtube-mobile-un-global or http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8161650.stm)

Whatever your politics, there's no denying that Brown is a Scot competing on the world stage; much of what he's been reported as saying today reminded me of our discussions around leadership at Babson.

A grand vision (or BHAG??):  A truly global society where "a global sense of ethics or moral right combined with global communications means that foreign policy is forever changed."

Actions that can be taken now:  The world requires "new international institutions ... to deal with these truly global issues."

Bringing his thoughts to life through stories: "He told a story about a boy in Rwanda who lay dying; his mother told him to hang on because the UN was coming, "but we never came", Brown said."

Brown got a standing ovation at the end of his talk and I thought it was worth bringing to everyone's attention as yet another example of seeing everything we worked on at Babson coming to life.