Breaking the rules or not, I have to say the TEDx brand is pretty weak to me. TED talks are, or at least used to be, fantastic. I would think that is more because of filtering of speakers than the format of the event. Nowadays I'm much more sceptical to those talks, and would easily take a recommendation for a non-branded talk over a TED(x) branded one.
I agree -- I think TEDx does a lot more damage to the TED brand than it adds. I really hate how the video archives online often mix the two, with some of the TEDx talks being (at best) self promotion, and often utterly whacko.
Absolutely. When they first announced the TEDx plan, I was bewildered. For an operation that held itself to such high (and at the time exclusive) standards, I couldn't figure out why it would use such a strategy to expand. It seemed like the inevitable result would only be brand dilution.
