Anderson School of Management’s new collaboration with TED, a nonprofit organization whose mission revolves around introducing and discussing “ideas worth spreading,” will cast light on an increase in networking, but it will also serve a more substantial purpose: to bridge insightful ideas with action.

In the past, UCLA has hosted one-day events, such as TEDx, for the Los Angeles community. Now TED will return to UCLA to launch what is informally known as the “TED Takeover.” As part of the long-term collaboration, the Anderson community will now get the chance to hear and to discuss various 18-minute lectures conducted by what the TED2012 program lists as statistics whizzes, peace activists, surgeons and economists.

While the partnership will provide a sturdy transitional bridge between higher education and potential future career opportunities for Anderson students, Russell Altenburg, a management graduate student, stressed that the collaboration serves a broader purpose than mere networking.

TED-Anderson allows business students focused on tackling global issues such as poverty and the environmental footprint of human activity to apply what they learn through meaningful discussions that seek to facilitate action, Altenburg said.

“At Anderson, we want to connect ideas with tangible outcomes,” he added.

The collaboration initiated earlier this month between TED and the Anderson School catapults the nonprofit into the unfamiliar yet promising arena of higher education: The partnership paves the path for TED’s very first long-term, formal collaboration with a business school.

A partnership with a business school reveals a concern about future businesses having positive impacts on society, said Sanjay Sood, associate professor of marketing.

The project also demonstrates – in an atmosphere of economic instability – a platform that resuscitates the practicality of progressive ideals such as corporate-social responsibility and the value of academic dialogue.

For instance, student groups at UCLA Anderson will sponsor panel discussions to help students and faculty find ways in which ideas can be advanced and actualized.

Altenburg, president of Net Impact, a student group dedicated to using business savvy to make positive changes, said student teams will be given access to TED’s internal strategy and will come to the table with experience in fields such as marketing.

As the Daily Bruin reported on Tuesday, recent curriculum changes at the Anderson School have alleviated certain difficulties with job prospects.

The TED-Anderson School collaboration further provides a hopeful window that, if opened by students, will enhance the skills necessary for not only successful career prospects, but for strong leadership backed by progressive ideas.

TED will begin its annual conference in Long Beach on Monday. Live streaming of the conference will be available using monitors set throughout the Anderson school to reach students and faculty, and a new lounge-like area at the Anderson School will become symbolic of the developing partnership.

But such sudden transformations and accommodations on their own reveal little in terms of a long-term collaboration: They serve merely as temporary changes that will come and go with the opening and closing of the TED conferences in Long Beach and in Palm Springs.

An indicator that provides evidence of greater seriousness and long-term commitment to effectiveness is necessary. The partnership delivers precisely this and would reflect considerations and plans that move well beyond the five-day timeline of this year’s conference.

The care with which the TED–Anderson School collaboration has developed its plan to attract students provides a further predictor of the partnership’s concern for creating an atmosphere in which students can solidify their business skills.

Students will be able to provide consultations on various projects that TEDActive attendees in Palm Springs will create. Students will also receive an in-class opportunity to discuss and consult on TED’s brand management.

It is this active participation from students in both classroom settings and elsewhere that is essential for effectively exemplifying students’ dedication to innovative vision and leadership.

Are you excited about the upcoming TED-talks? Email Torossian at atorossian@media.ucla.edu. Send general comments to opinion@media.ucla.edu or tweet us @DBOpinion.