frog design Sponsors TEDGlobal Conference

SAN FRANCISCO - Global innovation firm frog design (www.frogdesign.com/) today announced it will partner with TEDGlobal (conferences.ted.com/TEDGlobal2009/), the twin conference of TED and one of the world’s most renowned gatherings of leading thinkers and doers. Four years after its first European gathering, the TEDGlobal Conference will return to Oxford, UK on an annual basis. TEDGlobal 2009 is titled “The Substance of Things Not Seen” and will feature more than 50 speakers presenting from July 21-24 at the Oxford Playhouse.

frog design will produce the official program guide for the conference as well as a special TEDGlobal edition of its award-winning design mind magazine.

Doreen Lorenzo, president of frog design, said: “For 40 years, frog has been creating innovative products and services that turn bold ideas into reality. We are passionate about bringing together technology and design to inspire change, and we are honored to contribute this spirit of innovation to the TED community.”

“We’re thrilled to be collaborating with a design and innovation firm with such remarkable history, global reach, and breadth of creativity,” said Bruno Giussani, European director of TED.

Along with the event schedule, the TEDGlobal 2009 program guide will contain speaker bios, photo portfolios, maps of Oxford, and other information that will help the more than 700 attendees navigate the unique experience of a TED conference.

“The program guide is something TED attendees think of as a tool during the conference and as a collector’s item when it’s all over. frog designed the book for both uses, and they did it with a style that perfectly matches the theme of this year’s conference,” Mr. Giussani said.

In addition to producing the program guide, frog design will document the TEDGlobal talks in Oxford as well as gather behind-the-scenes stories - “the things not seen” - for a special edition of its magazine design mind, devoted exclusively to TEDGlobal. Immediately after the conference, frog will host sessions at its eight studios worldwide to create art and essays that delve more deeply into what happened at Oxford. “Our goal is to turn the ideas presented at TEDGlobal into visually rich content that extends the conversation beyond the conference,” said Sam Martin, editor-in-chief of design mind.

Mr. Giussani, who will serve as guest editor for the special design mind issue, said: “The design mind magazine - a beautiful and compelling publication - will provide a new perspective to everyone who follows TEDGlobal. It will be both a souvenir and a conversation starter, offering Oxford attendees and the broader TED community a look at the conference that goes far beyond the stage.”

The magazine will be distributed to all TEDGlobal attendees and the TED community a few weeks after the conference. It will also be available in select bookstores and online through designmind.frogdesign.com.

About frog design, inc.

frog design is a global innovation firm that works with the world’s leading companies, helping them to create and bring to market meaningful products, services, and experiences. frog’s multidisciplinary process reveals valuable consumer and market insights and inspires lasting, humanizing solutions. With a team of more than 400 designers, technologists, strategists, and analysts, frog delivers fully convergent experiences that span multiple technologies, platforms, and media. frog works across a broad spectrum of industries, including consumer electronics, telecommunications, healthcare, media, education, finance, retail, and fashion. Clients include Disney, GE, HP, Logitech, Microsoft, MTV, Seagate, Siemens, Yahoo! and others. Founded in 1969, frog is headquartered in San Francisco, with studios in Austin, New York, Seattle, Milan, Amsterdam, Stuttgart, and Shanghai. frog design is an independent division of Aricent, a global innovation, technology, and outsourcing company, focused exclusively on communications. Aricent is owned by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., Sequoia Capital, The Family Office, and Flextronics. www.frogdesign.com

frog’s design mind magazine provides perspectives on industry trends, emerging technologies, and global consumer culture. The magazine is published three times per year and is written by frog’s employees. It also features interviews with high-profile thought leaders along with contributions from external writers, designers, and photographers. Since its launch in July, 2008, design mind has received many accolades and was featured in numerous publications including BusinessWeek, Forbes, San Francisco Chronicle, and Core77. The magazine was selected as a winner for 365: AIGA Annual Design Competitions 30, STEP Magazine’s STEP Inside Design 100, and Creativity + Commerce, Print Magazine’s International Business Graphics Review. The special TEDGlobal issue “The Substance of Things Not Seen” will be the fourth edition after “Numbers” (July, 2008), “Motion” (January, 2009), and “Power” (June, 2009). designmind.frogdesign.com

About TED

TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started in 1984 as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then, its scope has broadened to include science, business, the arts, and the global issues facing our world. The annual conference now brings together the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives - in 18 minutes. Attendees have called it “the ultimate brain spa” and “a four-day journey into the future.” The diverse audience - entrepreneurs, scientists, creatives, philanthropists - is almost as extraordinary as the speakers, who have included Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Jane Goodall, Sir Richard Branson, Philippe Starck, Isabel Allende and Bono.

TED was first held in Monterey, California, in 1984. In 2001, Chris Anderson’s Sapling Foundation acquired TED from its founder, Richard Saul Wurman. In recent years, TED has expanded to include an annual international conference, TEDGlobal; media initiatives, including TEDTalks (available with subtitles in 40+ languages) and TED.com; the TED Fellowship; the TED Prize; and the newly launched TEDx initiative. TEDGlobal 2009, “The Substance of Things Not Seen,” will be held July 21-24, 2009, in Oxford, UK. TEDIndia will be held in Mysore, India, November 1-4, 2009. TED2010, “What the World Needs Now,” will be held February 9-13, 2010, in Long Beach, California, with a TEDActive simulcast event in Palm Springs, California.

For more info on TED: www.TED.com For more info on TEDGlobal: conferences.ted.com/TEDGlobal2009/

Source: frog design, inc.

US, Asia, Kerry Emberley of frog design, inc., +1-415-609-4292, kerry.emberley at frogdesign.com, or Europe, Till Grusche of frog design BV, +31(0)62 503 4660, till.grusche at frogdesign.com