T-Technology
E-Entertainment
D-Design
That’s exactly what was brought to Georgetown Friday night. Distinguished people from all walks of life came to speak at the prestigious school on the topic of Power.
I had started my day around noon when I got in my car and headed towards the university. As usual I took the wrong exit because I wasn’t paying attention and turned around somewhere near the Nationals stadium. Once I reached the main campus, I found free parking for the whole day which I later found out was only supposed to be for two hours. I didn’t get a ticket though.
Since it’s homecoming weekend lots of things were going on around campus. There was a barbecue, different clubs and organization had set up tables with various foods, and there was a career fair. (Not to mention when I was leaving the speakers series around 8 they were showing a movie outside on the lawn.) I had no idea where the building I was looking for was and the security office at the front was closed. However, I did overhear a conversation between two men who were heading to the same building I was. I soon began to follow them innocently, stopping every few minutes to look at newspapers and posters.
Once I found the building, I was told to wait in the stand-by line because I didn’t have a ticket. Good thing I got there early because the line got quite long.
I took notes on each speaker so here are my thoughts:
It was interesting to hear physicist Daniel Blair talk about the power in soft matter. I enjoyed his many demonstrations and physics lessons, especially the one where he whipped up egg whites long and hard enough until it turned into foam. I later tweeted him “I hope I can re-do your egg white demonstration at home” and he replied, “it’s so easy. give it a try!”
Dr. Cynthia Schneider discussed the power in hip hop music in other countries.
“The power of the people is greater than the people in power.”
I really enjoyed Kendall Ciesemier story where at 11 years she founded her own non profit organization, Kids Caring for Kids. She said,
“You can find your power in powerlessness through service.”
Time magazine Editor-At-Large, Bobby Ghosh, discussed how Jihad is a personal struggle amongst Muslims. He made the analogy that Jihad is to Muslims what Grace is to Christians. However, he did also talk about how Osama Bin Laden changed the definition of Jihad and how it became widely accepted among extremists.
Founder and President of Venture for America, Andrew Yang spoke about America’s distribution of talent. He pointed out that a majority of America’s talent goes towards finance, consulting and law career fields as opposed to job creating enterprises. His company is attempting to change that by supplying 100,000 US jobs by 2025 through entrepreneurship.
Dr. Moises Naim talked about the end of power and how it has fundamentally changed saying,
“It is easier to acquire, harder to use, and it is easier to lose.”
The highlight of the afternoon definitely goes to bartender and bar owner, Derek Brown, who took a shot on stage before speaking. Then proceeded to talk about why alcohol is important. Yes, in my mind it was crazy. But towards the end it made some sense. In other countries alcohol is apart of their culture and their rituals. So he made the point that we should impose value and meaning to drinking. LOL
Other notable speakers were American Ballet Dancer, Misty Copeland, Chief Digital Officer for Forbes, Mike Smith, Vanity Fair writer, Maureen Ann Orth, one half of the Grammy nominated duo Clipse, No Malice, and more.
