Giving Voice to Ideas and Issues

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Dear Friend of Ideas:

I write, on the eve of our national Thanksgiving holiday, to thank you for your continued interest and support for the Aspen Institute and its endeavors in building nonpartisan dialogue at home and abroad. Our commitment to values-based leadership is unbending; our love of innovative thinking and ways to address the most pressing issues that face society is a constant that guides our work.

We are excited for the coming Aspen Ideas Festival in 2017 and have a reinforced vigor, if you will. The events and expressed sentiments that have marked this election season — from around the nation and well beyond our borders, from all sides, ages, ethnicities, and genders — bolster for us the power of programming that seeks to give voice to so many ideas and issues. Ideas that are forward thinking. Ideas that reflect history. Ideas that shape our world today.

We are approaching this next Festival with discipline and open minds as we think through such themes as The America I Know (our track focusing on what is clearly a divided American society); Making It in the USA (an examination of what it will take, articulated by diverse leaders in the business and policy community, to build jobs and survive in our changing economy); and Global Conflicts (hoping, as ever, to engage smart thinkers from nations well beyond our borders to describe America’s position in the world, and, indeed, how the world is doing). We will look at a neglected yet extremely important topic in the election season: the role that Artificial Intelligence is going to play in our lives and workplaces. We will examine the Internet, investigating its strengths and weaknesses. Is it effectively “broken,” or does it continue to offer access to information in ways that can reach and connect all of humanity? We will also delve into questions including: What drives the creative process? What will the genetic revolution reveal about human life? How do we work toward a sustainable future? And finally, and perhaps most importantly in times as these: What kind of moral compass should guide us?

Across the nation, local and state governments, NGOs, education institutions, media outlets large and small, and organizations such as ours are all trying to make sense of the America that is now. We are lucky to be able to offer you, our pass holders, opportunities to meet and share your ideas with the leaders who spend their time focused on just this question. We are working diligently and carefully to ensure we bring balance and fresh thinking to our stages. We hope you will join us with the same enthusiasm. If ever there is a time to engage in important dialogue and conversation, it is now.

Warmest wishes for the season,

Kitty Boone
Executive Director and Vice President, Public Programs
The Aspen Institute

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This message was sent to [email protected] from: Kitty Boone | [email protected] | Aspen Ideas Festival | 1000 North Third Street | Aspen, Colorado 81611

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