5 things I learned at Aspen Ideas Festival

In it's 9th year, The Aspen Ideas Festival gathers some of the "most interesting thinkers in the world" to talk about issues, ideas and what inspires them.  The Aspen Ideas Festival is presented by The Aspen Institute and The Atlantic who are dedicated to dialogue and exchange and committed to bringing their leadership ideas to the public at large.

Click4 pix: 5 Things I learned at Aspen Ideas Fest.

AspenSpin was not credentialed press for Aspen Ideas fest but we did get to experience our first AIF as a volunteer and by attending a few events that were open to the public.  We were not privy to the inner sanctums of AIF (credentials only)...where the real ideas probably flow.  We got a small taste of the brain power that convenes in Aspen every June on the beautiful Aspen Institute campus at Aspen Meadows.

We had very lofty expectations for Aspen Ideas Fest.  In some ways the conference met those expectations.  In other ways...meh.  At AspenSpin we try not to judge..but...judge we do.  We're not attempting to be critical or snarky, but hopefully you'll share our wry observations. 

IDEAS = PRIVATE JETS.  Apparently if you have really good ideas you can convert them into a private jet...or at least a fractional jet share program.   The tiny Aspen Airport was stacked deep with private planes during Aspen Ideas Festival.  

Arianna Huffington and David Brooks of The New York Times. Click 4 pix.THOUGHT LEADERS NEED TO SELL BOOKS TOO.  There are some very smart people speaking at Aspen Ideas Fest.  They have some great ideas and they're sharing them with the world.  Some of the sessions are extremely interesting and informative. Others are esoteric, obtuse and nebulous.  Maybe the stuff is just over my head?   One thing is very clear...selling goods and services is a must...even for thought leaders.  For example, I was fired up for a lunch session entitled "Family Wealth..is it really about the money?" presented by the official Trust Company sponsor of AIF, U.S.Trust.  My previous career as a wealth manager prepared me well for this speech.  I knew most of the lingo...so I was hopeful that I would get some interesting and useful take home points.  Not the case.  The session turned out to be a sales pitch extolling the virtues and strengths of U.S. Trust's Trust Services Department. Wow not what I expected.  Maybe i'm too cynical.

The Politics of Volunteering:  Volunteering is a great way to immerse yourself in Aspen Ideas Festival.  When I reported for duty, I was hoping for a good position, maybe interim CFO or at least temporary Managing Director.   I was assigned to join the gift bag stuffing effort.  My direct supervisor was a 20 year old college sophomore.  Most of the bag stuffers were high school students, but a few, like myself were older, former professionals.  Stuffing 3000 gift bags builds character & camaraderie, but the office politics was fierce. Certain volunteers had developed pseudo-authority and attempted to influence the group dynamic.  I kept my head down & kept stuffing.  Some long-time volunteers were rewarded with golf cart keys, lanyards with personalized credentials, collared AIF shirts and sweet room monitor assignments.  I should have kissed more a$$.

Blah, Blah, Blah...Yada, Yada, Yada.  I know...it's an ideas festival. Discourse is the goal, right? But boy can these people rap. It's not just the speakers and panelists... it's the attendees & volunteers too. But what are they saying...I often couldn't figure it out.  One well heeled fest-goer winked and said "the emperor wears no clothes.  Another guest chimed in with "much ado about nothing" to describe AIF.  There's no doubt there are a lot of amazing ideas shared at AIF... but separating them from the rhetoric can be challenging.

Intellectuals love Aspen too.  It's pretty clear that the AIF crowd loves Aspen.  Everybody has their interpretation of the Aspen Idea... mind, body & spirit.  The intellectuals and their posse's are in Aspen to gather, engage, explore and lead us to "a good society".  They seem to be doing just that...as well as enjoying the natural beauty, the social & cultural opportunities and the hedonistic offerings.  If there's one idea that everyone agrees upon...Aspen is the best.

An Aspen Ideas panel discussion about the Middle East. Click for pix.Mark Penn, who may or may not be leading Hillary Clinton's possible run for the White House in 2016. Click 4 pix.The Aspen Institute's Campus at Aspen Meadows is fantastic. Click for pix.

Alpenglow in Aspen for The 2013 Aspen Ideas Festival. Click 4 pix. 

Jazz Aspen: The Sweet Sounds of June.

Click for Info about JAZZ ASPEN SNOWMASSFor the 23rd year in a row JAS / Jazz Aspen Snowmass presented a stellar musical line-up in June. The Benedict Music Tent on the campus of The Aspen Institute is probably the best venue ever. The indoor / outdoor acoustically perfect Bedouin-style, semi underground concert hall under the big top is an Aspen treasure. The headliners of the 3-Day June Fest were Jackson Browne w/ Sara Watkins,  Ben Harper & Charlie Musselwhite and Tedeschi Trucks Band w/ Naturally 7. The ongoing mission of Jazz Aspen Snowmass is to present and preserve jazz and related music forms through world-class festivals, performances and education programs.  So the bands played on.

Click 4 pix:  THE SWEET SOUNDS of JUNE

Both the VIP Patron's tent and the free lawn party were bustling with bars, food stations and world music from Mezcla-Afro Cuban All Stars and Tizer a jazz rock fusion trio. Locals and tourists were dancing side by side both inside and outside the tent.  The VIP area was a decadent scene as it always is for all Jazz Aspen Snowmass events.  The food and drinks flowed copiously.  The guys looked mountain ca$h and the ladies chic and sexy. Chef Martin Oswald and the team from Pyramid Bistro created an eclectic and delicious nutrient packed menu. If I had to pick a last meal it might just  be Bryan Nelson's Garlic Shrimp chased by Pyramid's blueberry cobbler ala mode.  The lawn party was free and open to the public with food from local vendors and a large tequila bar.  While the lawn has an obstructed view, the tunes were flowing freely.  The lawn party certainly offers a less VIP experience...it's still a great vibe and open to everybody.  In fact...the lawn party is my favorite part of JAS because it makes the music accessible to all... free and open to the public.

Jackson Browne captivated the crowd at Jazz Aspen SnowmassFriday night felt like 1977 again as Jackson Browne kicked off the fest with a sweet sounding set.  A. Party had a serious flashback while shooting pix in the front row.  The Pretender, Running on Empty, Doctor My Eyes and Somebody's Baby were highlights.  Take It Easy...made famous by the Eagles and co-written by Browne & Glen Frey brought the house down.  But JB was not finished yet, as he closed it out with a rowdy rendition with My Redneck Friends.  Sara Watkins the fiddle player from Grammy winner Nickel Creek and a full band provided support.  Browne sounds great...his voice resonates a time gone by.  Even the patron's section was standing & swaying in the aisles.  If you closed your eyes...and you didn't look too closely at Jackson's youthful, but almost 65 year old face...it was a flashback to the 70's...and it felt soooo niiiice.

Ben Harper & Charlie Musselwhite rocked the tent.Saturday Ben Harper the Grammy winning singing song writing blues, folk, soulful, rocker teamed up with harmonica legend Charlie Musselwhite to "almost" blow the roof off the music tent.  Harper and Musselwhite are touring behind their new album Get Up!.  Musselwhite known for his harp is a member of the Blues Hall of Fame.  The undisputed peak was the rousing cover of Led Zeppelin's...When the Levee Breaks.  The fairly docile crowd up front erupted in a frenzy during the crescendo of this classic rock ballad.

Sunday capped it all off with the husband & wife team of Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks and their tightly knit Tedeschi Trucks Band or TTB.  With Allman-esqe guitar licks and a long musical heritage including Grammy's, TTB did it's thing to the delight of the full house and even more packed lawn party.  Opening for TTB was Naturally 7, a group of seven vocalists who replicate instruments to such a degree, that they have you looking for the actual band.  Naturally 7 are known as the "first vocal play group ever".  They received a standing O from the JAS Festival crowd.

Spectacular June weather and an undeniably awesome venue at the Benedict Music Tent made JAS's June Festival a huge success.  Whether you enjoyed the shows from the lawn or you were in the big money front row at JAS's June Festival, it crystal clear that the music , the overall vibe and the community scene was very sweet indeed.

Click 4 pix:  THE SWEET SOUNDS of JUNE

Tedeschi Trucks Band jammed at JAS at the Benedict Music Tent in Aspen. Click 4 pix.Everybody had a blast at the Jazz Aspen Snowmass June Fest. Click 4 pix.Mezcla, Afro Cuban All-Stars chillin' after 3 days of fun & music at the Free JAS Lawn Party. Click 4 pix.Ain't no party like a JAS Lawn Party. Free & Open to the Public. Click 4 pix.

Jamming in style at Jazz Aspen Snowmass. In the VIP Patron's tent. Click 4 pix.

Be Nice to Nerds by Craig Newmark

Craig Newmark, (founder of Craig's List) agreed to share his take on the Aspen Ideas Festival with AspenSpin.  His first person account appears below, un-edited.  Thanks Craig. 

« Be nice to nerds... | Main

July 10, 2010

A few days at the Aspen Ideas Festival

Okay, I haven't recovered yet from the Aspen Ideas Festival, too many interesting people and genuinely valuable panel sessions. I tried to do my part; here's a very narrowly focused take.

(The photos here also illustrate my fondness for the flora and fauna of Aspen; you'll note that I'm a fan of  Corvids, not only Magpies but Crows and Ravens. Note that you can click on the photos for larger versions.)

In a way, almost too thought provoking, here's one example, a really big deal for me...

The session on social media and journalism was a really big deal for me, included David Kirkpatrick, Vivian Schiller, Arianna Huffington, and Strauss Zelnick. The deal is that social media really is having a deep effect on what really matters in journalism, particularly needs for more investigative journalism, and lots more factchecking. Arianna quoted someone saying "trust is the new black", and even better:

Strauss: "The community is the message." (I need to think more about that.)

Kirkpatrick: "Social media is a truth serum for mainstream media."

These guys really made me think.

That led to my premiering a new phrase at a panel I shared with Vivek Kundra, who's the CIO of the whole US. He's figuring out how to better deal with Federal computer systems to provide better service at much lower cost, focusing on better return for the taxpayer dollar.

The new phrase: "the immune system of democracy" referring to the role of the press in the survival of democracy. We're seeing the emergence of a network of factcheckers to complement the traditional press, like factcheck.org, PolitiFact.org, and the Center for Media and Democracy (sourcewatch.org and prwatch.org.)

My panel was documented by James Fallows at the Atlantic, where he also deems me the Bob Newhart of the Internet. (Usually, I'm the Forrest Gump of the Net.) (The gf reminds me that I'm not as funny as I think I am.)

A good piece by Eric Kuhn from CNN talks about my work regarding accountability and transparency in Congress. However, it gives me way too much credit, which should go to the members of the Transparency Caucus and Sunlight Foundation.

My deal is that plenty happened at the Festival, my head's still swimming, and it might be a very long time before I digest it and then realize what happened.

Aspen Ideas Festival 2010

Can Aspen save the world?

The Aspen Ideas Festival (AIF)2010 is aiming to do just that.  The 6th annual AIF is taking place RIGHT NOW in our little mountain hamlet, Aspen, Colorado.  AIF describes itself as  "a conversation-packed exploration of some of the most important ideas and pressing issues we face" .  We being --mankind as a species and earth as a planet.  AIF 2010 is presented by The Aspen Institute and Atlantic Magazine. 

Bill Clinton makes the scene in Aspen.AspenSpin is still on hiatus in California, so we are not actually attending this fantastic event, however we are covering it via the interwebs.  While we normally like to get the "inside information" and "super-sick photos" for all Aspen events, this time.... we are on the outside looking in.... its still fascinating none the less.  AIF brings together thought leaders from around the globe to chat, network and hopefully change the world.   Topics include World Affairs, Arts and Culture, The American Agenda, The environment and sustainability.   AIF networks a bunch of incredibly smart, well connected, affluent people.  Hopefully they will find the solution the the world's problems, and share it with the rest of us ASAP.

Click AIF 2010 to see photos, videos and more.   All photos presented on AspenSpin are snagged from the internet, please don't sue us.Walter Isaacson President of the Aspen Institute tweets with Twitter founders @ev and @biz neither of whom finished college. Twitter is a phenomenom, but what's the end game?                                                                                             Futurist KR Sridhar, CEO of Bloom Energy raps about fuel cells and the future of energy.

NY education Czar Joel Klein weighs in on the importance of education.Isaacson with Barbara Streisand, Jane Lubchenco (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and NBC's Andrea Mitchell.Barbara Streisand is excited to meet best selling author and Harvard History Prof. Niall FergusonBill Gates spoke at the Aspen Ideas Festival 2010 in Aspen.Author Sebastian Junger shared his adventures at AIF 2010 in Aspen.