In an effort to broaden the scope of content and presenters at their conference next year, TED (Technology Entertainment and Design) announced that they’ll be holding public auditions throughout the world in order to put together a their first crowd-sourced program for TED2013.

TED will be holding public auditions in 14 countries – Amsterdam, Bangalore, Doha, Johannesburg, London, Nairobi, New York, São Paulo, Seoul, Shanghai, Sydney, Tokyo, Tunis and Vancouver – between April and June 2012 in order to discover new talents and ideas that have the potential to change the world. Once auditions have been held, TED will be posting videos of all of the presenters so that the publica can vote for the presenters they’d like to see at TED2013. TED will then select the top 50 from those results to include in their 2013 conference.

Among the specific talents that TED is looking for are: inventor, teacher, prodigy, artist, performer, sage, enthusiast, change agent, storyteller, and the spark (someone with a powerful idea worth spreading). This audition will be limited to presenters who have never given at talk at a TED conferende or been invited to one of TED’s many events.

TED is a rich resource for budding polymaths and eclectic tastes. If you’re unfamiliar with what TED does, check out some of the previous talks given at some of their events below.