TED — the increasingly popular New York based, California-held ideas event— is coming to Tokyo. The conference, whose speakers were previously by invitation only, will hold an audition in Tokyo on May 29 as part of a worldwide talent search. Organized by the TEDxTokyo team and hosted at Roppongi Hills in collaboration with Google, the Tokyo auditions will contribute to the global search for speakers and performers for TED Long Beach 2013.

TED, whose mantra is "Ideas Worth Spreading," has become particularly well known for its 18-minute TED Talks. The acronym stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design, the focal points of the talks. Available to watch on the TED website, the talks have been viewed more than 700 million times since it went online in 2006, with subjects spanning fields from science, medicine and social innovations, to art, design and the performing arts.

Since its inception in 1984, TED has changed owners from founder and creator Richard Saul Wurman to current owner and TED curator Chris Anderson, who took the organization's headquarters from California to New York, even though the main stage continues to be in Long Beach each year.