On a whim, we decided to see who the leading “Idea” conferences pay attention to on Twitter. Rather than focusing on who follows TED, Davos, the Aspen Ideas Festival, etc. We took a look at who they follow.

The events and twitter accounts we referenced were:

99U (@99u)
Aspen Ideas Festival (@aifestival)
All Things D (@allthingsd)
BIL Conference (@bilconf)
Clinton Global Initiative (@clintonglobal)
Creative Conference (@Cre8Con)
World Economic Forum (@Davos)
DLD Conference (@dldconference)
Future in Review (@futureinreview)
InnoTown (@innotown)
Lift Conference (@liftconference)
New Yorker Festival (@NewYorkerFest)
PICNIC (@picnicfestival)
PopTech (@poptech)
Solve For X — Megan Smith (@smithmegan)
Summit Series (@SummitSeries)
TED — Chris Anderson (@tedchris)
TED Global (@TEDGlobal)
TEDx (@TEDx)
Biz Inno Factory (@TheBIF)

Who is the most followed? See below. Tim O’Reilly leads the pack.

13 Follow:
Tim O’Reilly (@timoreilly)

10 Follow:
Bill Gates (@BillGates)
Evan Williams (@ev)

9 Follow:
Robert Scoble (@Scobleizer)

8 Follow:
Clay Shirky (@cshirky)
Joi Ito (@Joi)
Kara Swisher (@karaswisher)
Pete Cashmore (@mashable)
Chris Anderson (@TEDchris)

7 Follow:
Biz Stone (@biz)
Maria Popova (@brainpicker)
Eric Schmidt (@ericschmidt)
Fast Company (@FastCompany)
Helen Waters (@HelenWalters)
Hootsuite (@hootsuite)
Om Malik (@om)
David Pogue (@Pogue)
Steven Johnson (@stevenbjohnson)
TechCrunch (@TechCrunch)
TEDNews (@TEDNews)
TEDTalks (@tedtalks)

6 Follow:
Alexis Madrigal (@alexismadrigal)
World Economic Forum (@davos)
Jacqueline Novogratz (@jnovogratz)
June Cohen (@junecohen)
Nicholas Kristof (@NickKristof)
New York Times (@nytimes)
Stephen Fry (@stephenfry)
Walt Mossberg (@waltmossberg)

Here is a matrix depicting the top 20 tweeters and what specific events follow them (click to enlarge):