Starting at 18:00 GMT on May 10, 2008, locations in Cairo, Kigali, London, Los Angeles, Mumbai, and Rio de Janeiro will be linked for a live program of powerful films, live music, and visionary speakers. The entire program will be broadcast – in seven languages – to millions of people worldwide through the internet, television, and mobile phones.

The 24 short films to be featured have been selected from an international competition that generated more than 2,500 submissions from over one hundred countries. The films were chosen based on their ability to inspire, transform, and allow us see the world through another person’s eyes. Details on the Pangea Day films can be viewed here.

The program will also include a number of exceptional speakers and musical performers. Queen Noor of Jordan, CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, musician/activist Bob Geldof, and Iranian rock phenom Hypernova are among those taking part.

Jehane Noujaim was rewarded a TED wish in 2006. Her wish was to connect the world through film. Fellow TEDsters got to work and made it happen. Don’t you just love it when people get together for a good cause? Well, that’s the whole idea behind TED.

Also check out Craig Venter’s talk about just how close he came to creating synthetic life.

I can’t wait for the videos from TED 2007, but in the mean time, they put up this 7 minute “teaser” to further whet my appetite. Prepare to be inspired.

The annual Technology, Entertainment, Design conference brings together speakers from around the globe, each getting 18 minutes to fascinate and inspire the audience with their ideas in art, science, technology, nature, humanity, music, religion and everything in between.

The speakers are a veritable who’s who of the world’s best and brightest. Recognizable names such as Bill Clinton, Bono, Jeff Bezos (CEO of Amazon), Richard Dawkins, Peter Gabriel, Al Gore, Jane Goodall, Sergey Brin and Larry Page (co-founders of Google), Tony Robbins, and James Watson share the stage with unfamiliar, but equally, if not more compelling speakers like Wade Davis (National Geographic), David Deutsch (physicist at the University of Oxford), Frans Lanting (nature photographer), Rev. Tom Honey (Canon Pastor of Exeter Cathedral), Helen Fisher (anthropologist), Joshua Prince-Ramus (architecture), and Jehane Noujaim (filmmaker).

One of the highlights of the event is the TED Prize. Three people are selected before the conferenc, each getting some prize money and, more importantly, one wish to present to the TED attendees. This is the 2nd year for the TED Prize, one of last year’s prize winner was Bono, and his wish was “to help build a social movement of more than one million american activists for Africa”. TEDsters acted and set up ONE.org, Sun Microsystems provided technology support, others provided funding, marketing, and media access. Today, ONE is a network more than two million strong.

This year, another wish maker was Dr. Larry Brilliant who played an important role in the wiping out of Small Pox. His wish was to help build an early warning system to protect us from a pandemic outbreaks such as the Bird Flu. In addition to other supporters, he was approached by the founders of Google to head up their $1 billion philanthropic foundation Google.org. It will give him a great head start in reaching his goal.

Check out the documentary The Future We Will Create: Inside the World of TED, It will make you feel better about the state of the world and humanity. Also, be sure to go to TED.com and watch and be inspired by these brilliant speakers.