Tony Wheeler created Lonely Planet after travelling Asia's 'hippie trail' in the early 1970s. Today, after 100 million books, offices on three continents and everything digital from phone apps to websites, inflight infotainment systems to ebooks, the business has moved on to new owners, giving Tony even more time to venture down roads less travelled.
Post LP his activities have included the Planet Wheeler Foundation which supports educational and health projects in the developing world and the Wheeler Centre for Books, Writing & Ideas in Melbourne.

Travel to the world's more 'edgy' locales has always fascinated me. I want to get my audience to think about what this means through my stories from travelling along George W Bush's 'Axis of Evil' for Bad Lands and the lessons I've been learning from my recent Dark Lands travels.

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)