TED has a new program this year called TEDx – local, independently organized TED style events. We’re big fans of TED, so jumped at the chance to sponsor our local version, TEDxYYC. It’s this Friday and you can watch the live stream of it, if interested.

Looking at the list of speakers, we got to talking about how TED and TED-style events are all about crowdsourcing ideas. Let me explain, with crowdsourcing projects, adding one more person doesn’t add incremental value, it adds it exponentially. With events like TED, the same thing happens. Instead of putting together a group of experts on one subject, the idea is to mash up all kinds of experts and listen to the resulting conversation.

Think of the possibilities. When looking to crowdsourcing to help solidify your brand, for example, looking to smart experts across a number of industries would yield a very different conversation than only asking current customers. When looking to crowdsourcing – or move to open – the local government, instead of asking local politicians, why not involve different people in the conversation. Local entrepreneurs, for example, might be a great resource for different perspectives.

Don’t get me wrong, going deep on one subject is important (hooray for dental conferences), but the opportunity to spark your imagination, or to see a problem from a completely different vantage is pretty magical. If we think of it as an online conference of great minds, what sort of crowdsourcing communities would you like to see?