Where can you see Bill Gates, astronaut Chris Hadfield, Sting, tech visionary Nicholas Negroponte and an ensemble of intellectuals, pop culture icons and game-changers all on the same stage?

TED2014 in Vancouver, of course.

The lineup for TED2014, the first instalment of the wildly popular conference to be held outside of California, has just been announced.  TED – which stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design – premiered 30 years ago and has since become a global phenomenon.  At its heart are brainy, 18-minute mini lectures, delivered by some of the world’s smartest people on just about every topic under the sun.  (To date, TED talks have attracted more than 1-billion views online.)

This is the first of at least two consecutive years that TED will be held in Vancouver, at a special auditorium constructed inside the Vancouver Conference Centre.  If you’re hoping to score tickets to the March 17-March 21 shindig, however, you may be out of luck.  Just 1,200 seats are available and they’re going for $7,500 a pop.  Not to mention, before you even think about buying, you first have to submit a written application explaining why you deserve to attend.

But there’s always YouTube.  The five-day Vancouver conference, titled The Next Chapter, is organized around a series of broad overarching topic areas.  Speakers are grouped into themes ranging from Retrospect to Reshape, Wish, Wired, Hacked, Passion, Unstress, and more.  Here’s a look at the complete lineup at this year’s TED:

Session 1: Liftoff (Monday, March 17)

• Nicholas Negroponte – MIT tech visionary
• Chris Hadfield – Canadian astronaut
• Geena Rocero – model and activist
• A to-be-named education reformer

Session 2: Retrospect (Tuesday, March 18)

• Bran Ferren – technology designer
• Marc Kushner – architect
• Raspyni Brothers – jugglers
• Yoruba Richen – documentary filmmaker
• Mark Ronson – music producer and DJ

Session 3: Reshape (Tuesday, March 18)

• Michel Laberge – fusion scientist
• Amanda Burden – New York City’s urban planner
• David Kwong – cruciverbalist
• Matthew Carter – type designer

Session 4: Wish (Tuesday, March 18)

• Bill Gates – philanthropist
• Melinda Gates – philanthropist
• Gavin Schmidt – climate scientist
• Zak Ebrahim – peace activist
• Sting – singer, actor, author

Session 5: Us (Wednesday, March 19)

• Nancy Kanwisher – brain researcher
• Rob Knight – microbial ecologist
• David Epstein – sports science reporter
• Jon Mooallem – writer

Session 6: Wired (Wednesday, March 19)

• Chris Kluwe – punter and author
• Margaret Gould Stewart – user experience master
• Randall Munroe – cartoonist
• Avi Reichental – 3D printer

Session 7: Why (Wednesday, March 19)

• Jason Webley – musician
• Wendy Chung – geneticist
• Helder Guimaraes – magician
• Hugh Herr – prostheticist
• Allan Adams – theoretical physicist
• Jim Holt – writer and philosopher

Session 8: Hacked  (Thursday, March 20)

• Keren Elazari – cybersecurity expert
• David Chalmers – philosopher
• Marco Tempest – techno-illusionist
• Ed Yong – science writer

Session 9: Emergent (Thursday, March 20)

• Deborah Gordon – ecologist
• Sara Lewis – firefly specialist
• Del Harvey – security maven
• Will Marshall – space scientist
• Andrew Connolly – astronomer

Session 10: Passion (Thursday, March 20)

• Mellody Hobson – investment expert
• Masarat Daud – rural education campaigner
• Ben Saunders – Arctic explorer

Session 11: Unstress (Friday, March 21)

• Simon Sinek – leadership expert
• Jennifer Senior -writer
• Sarah Jones – polymorphic playwright
• Kevin Briggs – Golden Gate guardian

Session 12: Onward  (Friday, March 21)

• Joi Ito – relentless mind
• Andrew Solomon – writer
• Julia Sweeney – actor, comedian, playwright
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