The TED Prize is awarded to three extraordinary individuals each year with a $100,000 bounty and world-changing wish. Moreover, the winners are also (and most importantly) granted the dedicated backing of the aforementioned best-and-brightest in whatever capacity they can support the winner's chosen endeavor.

Past winners include Larry Brilliant, Bill Clinton, Dave Eggers, Bono, and E.O. Wilson.

The prize portion of the grand think-fest will stream live tonight at 5 p.m. EST (8 PST). In addition, some theaters nationwide will host a viewing event ($20). This year the conference moved from Monterrey, CA to Long Beach although the HQs are in NY and Vancouver.

Laemmle Music Hall, Beverly Hills, CA, 310-274-6869

Laemmle's Playhouse, Pasadena, CA, 626-844-6500
Michigan Theatre, Jackson, MI, 517-783-0962
Bryn Mawr Film Institute, Bryn Mawr, PA, 610-527-9898
Jane Pickens Theater, Newport, RI, 401-846-5252

This year's winners, from the TED site:

Sylvia Earle, called "Her Deepness" by the New Yorker and the New York Times, "Living Legend" by the Library of Congress, and "Hero for the Planet" by Time, is an oceanographer, explorer, author, and lecturer with a deep commitment to research through personal exploration.

"We've got to somehow stabilize our connection to nature so that in 50 years from now, 500 years, 5,000 years from now there will still be a wild system and respect for what it takes to sustain us."

Jill Tarter, director of the SETI Institute's Center for SETI Research and holder of the Bernard M. Oliver Chair for SETI. She has devoted her career to hunting for signs of sentient beings elsewhere, and almost all aspects of this field have been affected by her work.

" 'Are we alone?' Humans have been asking [this question] forever. The probability of success is difficult to estimate, but if we never search, the chance of success is zero."

Jose Abreu, a retired economist, trained musician, and social reformer founded El Sistema ("the system") in 1975 based on the conviction that what poor Venezuelan kids needed was classical music. After 30 years and 10 different political administrations, El Sistema is now a nationwide organization of 102 youth orchestras, 55 children's orchestras and 270 music centers.

"Music has to be recognized as an ... agent of social development in the highest sense, because it transmits the highest values -- solidarity, harmony, mutual compassion. And it has the ability to unite an entire community and to express sublime feelings."

This year the TED team has created a TED Fellows program:

An amazing, eclectic group of 40 people inaugurate the TED Fellows program as the 2009 Long Beach TED Fellows. Among them, you will find ...

* The creator of the first African online ad network and the African equivalent of The Huffington Post

* A New Zealand physicist who discovered the hidden mathematical patterns of warfare

* The founder of an international women's inventor network

* An Indian design researcher dedicated to improving the lives of children

* A Korean-American actress whose one-woman show tells the story of a North Korean spy