2010 Festival Overview

Exploring Ideas, Deepening Dialogue, Inspiring Action


July 5-July 11, 2010, Aspen, Colorado

“Ideas are, in truth, force.” 
 Henry James



Entering its sixth year, the Aspen Ideas Festival is a conversation-packed exploration of some of the most important ideas and pressing issues we face. Presented by the Aspen Institute and The Atlantic magazine, the Festival strives to highlight the ideas of experts at the forefront of their fields and of leaders whose actions are changing the world.

Why an Ideas Festival?

For 60 years the Aspen Institute has been the nation’s premier place for leaders from around the globe to explore timeless ideas and address the toughest challenges of the day. Since 1857, The Atlantic magazine has shaped national debate on the defining issues of our times. Together, we’re working to touch as many people as we can to create a “public commons” for the 21st century, where a diverse group of intellectually curious people can gather to talk, listen, debate, question, and learn what they can do to make our world — and our children’s world — a better place.

Divided into two overlapping four-day sessions, the Aspen Ideas Festival offers a substantial array of lectures, presentations, debates, and panel discussions by leading thinkers who span a vast range of critical topics, from the economy to the environment, from science to the arts, and from across ideological spectrums.
 


Who Will Be There?

From early in the morning until late at night, inspiring and provocative writers, public officials, artists, scientists, business executives, scholars, economists, foreign policy specialists, entrepreneurs, and leaders of all kinds — drawn from myriad fields, from across the country and from around the world — will gather to address audiences on the campus of the Aspen Institute and in the town of Aspen. Attendees will meet other concerned and curious participants on the footpath, over lunch, and at the coffee bar — civically engaged and intellectually charged individuals who share a common enthusiasm for engaging on the serious topics of the day as well as the inspiration that a new idea has sparked. This is a place to challenge one’s thinking and learn about the world and the ideas that are shaping it.

 

The Months Ahead


As we plan the Festival and specific details emerge, we will share exciting updates on our website and through electronic communications. We’ll introduce you to presenters, link the topics at the Festival to timely issues in the news, and offer insights to the Festival agenda. Please check your email in the weeks and months to come for news and program updates. See you at the 2010 Aspen Ideas Festival! 

Aspen Ideas Festival 2010: Ideas in Action

Over the past five years some of the most inspiring and provocative writers, artists, scientists, business leaders, educators, economists, doctors, foreign policy experts, and political leaders – drawn from myriad fields, from across the country and around the world – have gathered in Aspen to talk, teach, debate, question, and think out loud. The Aspen Ideas Festival offers a remarkable chance to join this outstanding group of thinkers and delve deeply into the issues and ideas that are shaping our future.

The Festival will span one week, engaging its participants in a variety of panel discussions, tutorials, seminars, and other events that promise robust intellectual exchange. It has been designed with a special emphasis on “IDEAS IN ACTION” – spotlighting the cutting-edge, or timeless, thinking that has – or will – translate into actions that make a difference. We’ll enlist innovators and discuss proven success stories from the world of technology, foreign policy, culture, economics, the environment, and the arts. We will focus on a critical region of the world, Latin America, along with global challenges in water, health, and education. And we’ll play, while learning about the important neuroscience that triggers our creativity and our success.

Daily forums throughout the week will include:

• Plenary sessions offered three times a day: panels, one-on-one interviews, and presentations;
• Multiple, concurrent tutorial sessions twice daily, where attendees pick and choose from a menu of discussions across the programming spectrum;
• Casual conversations, book signings, and action-oriented discussions on campus between attendees and speakers, offering further opportunities for exchange;
• Evening Exchanges and in-town events in venues around Aspen that will bring Aspen Institute moderators, Atlantic editors, and other prominent national journalists together with presenters for substantive conversation. Films, performances, and presentations will also take place.

The Festival is designed around a series of program strands, or “tracks," each of which offers a variety of discussions relevant to a certain topic area. The tracks offer participants the opportunity to focus on a particular area of interest during their time with us, or cover a lot of ground with a menu of diverse ideas across a number of topics.

2010 Program Tracks

Due to the breadth of certain topics, five program tracks will offer conversations across the whole week spanning both sessions of the Festival, July 5 – 8 and July 8 – 11:

• World Affairs
• Arts and Culture
• The American Agenda
• The Environment: Design and Sustainability
• Women + Girls: The Solution

Alongside the weeklong tracks, focused attention will be given to different subjects during each session of the Festival. In 2010, these session-specific four-day program tracks will include: