Who Influences the "Idea" Conference Leaders?

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):