6 most striking moments at the first in-person TED conference in years, from Elon Musk to Putin's portrait photographer to a metaverse demo

• Insider journalist Allana Akhtar went to the TED2022 conference in Vancouver, Canada last week.
• It was the first in-person TED conference since the start of the pandemic.
• Striking moments included a cooking demo using foraged seaweed and insights from Putin's portrait photographer.

TED welcomed a live audience in Vancouver, Canada last week for its first in-person conference since 2019.

The conference hosted 1,500 mostly mask-less people at an indoors venue, with mandatory testing and proof of vaccination upon entering.

TED welcomed a slate of high-profile speakers including billionaires Bill Gates and Elon Musk, politicians Al Gore and Bristol mayor Marvin Rees, and stars in various industries like Moderna chief science officer Melissa J. Moore and Olympian Allyson Felix.

I attended the conference in Vancouver to see how TED welcomed live audiences back. Here are the six most striking moments from the TED2022 conference in April:

1. Elon Musk appeared on the TED stage with curator Chris Anderson in a last-minute, surprise in-person appearance

Hours after Musk made a bid to buy Twitter in a bid that values the company at $43 billion, the billionaire Tesla CEO appeared on-stage in Vancouver to talk about his decision with TED curator Chris Anderson.

The on-stage appearance came as a surprise, as Anderson had recorded an 80-minute interview with Musk a few days prior and expected the CEO to join him via satellite for a live Q&A.

"I am not playing the back-and-forth game," Musk said regarding his bid for Twitter. "I have moved straight to the end."

The bid comes days after Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal announced Musk would not join the social media company's board of directors, five days after Twitter announced Musk would be appointed to the board.

Along with giving more color to his decision to buy Twitter, Musk spoke about his difficult childhood growing up with Asperger's, spars with the US Security and Exchange Commission, and tweeting while he's on the toilet.

"The truth matters to me a lot. Sort of pathologically it matters to me," Musk said.

2. The audience learned Putin's favorite Beatles song is 'Yesterday,' according to a photojournalist who took his portrait

British photojournalist Platon gave a talk where he discussed finding common ground with his high-profile subjects, including Michelle Obama, Pussy Riot, Muhammad Ali, and Vladmir Putin.

Platon said he asked Putin if he had ever listened to The Beatles, to which he responded, in perfect English, "I love The Beatles." Putin also said his favorite Beatle was Paul McCartney and his favorite song was "Yesterday."

"That human connection I had with him let me in, and I ended up about an inch and a half away from his nose as I took this picture," Platon said. "The truth is that this is the cold face of power and authority in Russia."

Platon said he recently learned anyone caught circulating his photographs of Putin in connection with human rights violations will be arrested and go to jail immediately. (Insider could not verify this claim, and US media outlets have not reported it.)

3. TED attendees raised $2.15 million for Ukraine, to match refugees with European families and support female military members

TED started the conference with a presentation on violinists across the world playing a Ukrainian folk song. Two Ukrainians gave the first TED talks: chess grandmaster Garry Kazparov and non-profit leader Zoya Lytvyn.

Following their talks, Anderson asked audience members who wished to donate $1,000, $10,000, $100,000, and $1 million to efforts in Ukraine to raise their hands. Though some pledged the first three donation amounts, no one raised their hands to give away $1 million.

"I just feel like there might be a chance to do something that's powerful, beautiful, joyful actually, that will send not only hugely needed resources to people who need them but also a message that we're standing with them," Anderson said.

TED ended up raising $2.15 million from "community members" during the conference, a spokesperson told Insider.

Anderson said the money raised would go to five charities: EU4UA, Team4UA, Osvitoria, K.Fund, and Ukrainian Women Veteran Movement. He said the conference will "move fast" to ensure charities would receive the money within the next 30 days.

4. In a mind-bending AI experiment, a singer sang using another person's voice

The Berlin-based musician Holly Herndon recently launched a free "digital twin," or an artificial intelligence-enabled clone of her voice. Herndon sought to allow as many people as possible to create music with her and using her voice.

"If I can allow people to play with my IP, my digital identity, my intellectual property, what might they come up with?" Herndon said. "Could someone else go on tour as me with my permission? Could I be in a thousand different bands in a thousand languages, and what would that even sound like?"

To demonstrate how her tool works, Herndon invited the musician PHER to sing his own song with one normal microphone, and one that enables him to sing in Herndon's voice. PHER began to sing a ballad in his natural masculine, deep voice, yet later sang a one-person duet by bringing both microphones to his mouth.

As PHER sang into the digital twin microphone, the audience heard the song in Herndon's high pitched voice. PHER was mouthing the lyrics, yet Herndon's voice rang in the audience's ears.

5. TED created its own metaverse demonstration using a physical stage and virtual elements on an iPad

The metaverse, cryptocurrency, blockchain, NFTs, and other talked-about tech topics took center stage at TED, getting airtime from high-profile speakers like Musk and Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri.

Instead of solely letting speakers talk about the metaverse, TED took the technology one step further by creating its own digital reality universe. The conference partnered with entertainment technology company Kaleidoco to preview the immersive art installation Particle Ink, which creates demonstration including physical dances, digital graphics displayed on the screen, and virtual reality animation.

TED gave audience members an iPad to view before two dancers took the stage to perform a choreographed routine. During the performance, the dancers engaged with virtual reality dragons, planets, and other elements only visible with the iPad. When audience members moved their iPads around, they could see more virtual reality elements scattering the stage.

"While highly technical in scope and development, Particle Ink has the depth, creativity, magic, and intrigue that speaks to all ages, sparking wonderment and creativity," Kaleidoco co-CEO Jennifer Tuft said in a statement.

6. A speaker made kelp chips live on-stage using ingredients she foraged herself from the sea in Vancouver

Alexis Nikole Nelson built a 3 million following on TikTok through teaching people how to find edible plants in their backyards.

Nelson brought her social media persona to the TED stage by sharing her enthusiasm for foraging with the audience.

"When my mom told me there was a bunch of free food hanging out in lawns and sidewalks, my mind was blown," Nelson said. "All of these free fruits, veggies, and fungi, that didn't require your water, didn't require your time, and often were healthier than their counterparts in the grocery store."

Nelson brought foraging directly to the audience by cooking kelp chips made from bull kelp, an annual seaweed, she foraged from Vancouver's Pacific coast. (She also touted the environmental benefits of seaweed, which does not deplete fresh water or land reserves.)

Audience members later received handfuls of sweet and salty kelp chips when leaving the stage.