What's New @ The Aspen Institute
July/August 2011

Featured | @ Washington, DC | @ Aspen, CO | @ NYC | @ Wye River | Around the World

Featured:


Aspen Security Forum (July 27-30) Select tickets to public events and day passes now on sale at the Wheeler Opera House. Click here for more information including the latest agenda and to register for a full forum pass. For further info, please contact Josh Diamonstein.


The Aspen Institute's 18th Annual Summer Celebration, to be held in Aspen on August 6, will honor Brent Scowcroft, co-chair of the Aspen Strategy Group (ASG) and national security advisor to Presidents Gerald Ford and George H. W. Bush. Gen. Scowcroft will be joined in conversation by former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and ASG co-chair Joe Nye. ASG Director Nicholas Burns will moderate. Co-chairs for this event are Michael and Jane Eisner, honorary co-chairs are Jane Harman and her son Brian Frank. For more info or to purchase tickets, please contact Becky Ward.

Announcing the 2012 Aspen Ideas Festival: June 27-July 3

@ Washington, DC

Communications and Society Program will host Networks and Citizenship, a roundtable to discuss how digital communication technologies are disrupting numerous industries and the repercussions of this disruption. Watch the conversation live at 8:45am MT/10:45am ET August 2-4.

Economic Opportunities Program's FIELD selected the latest class of leaders to Scale Academy for Microenterprise Development. More information.

Initiative on Financial Security hosted a discussion on Reforming Our Nation's Financial System: Dodd-Frank One Year Later July 21. Video to be posted on Institute's website.

Ascend Executive Director Anne Mosle shared a byline with 2011 Aspen Ideas Festival speaker and best-selling author Wes Moore on the lead op-ed in the Baltimore Sun. Read the editorial.

Community Strategies Group is publishing Growing Local Philanthropy 2009 Survey: Community Foundations and Geographic Affiliates at the end of July. For more info, please contact Elsa Noterman.

@ Aspen, CO:

McCloskey Speaker Series featured noted physicist and best selling author Brian Greene and Democratic strategist Donna Brazile this summer. The series continues through mid-August and is open to the public. For more info, please contact Beth Slater.

  • July 22: A Conversation with Republican Governors Haley (SC), Martinez (NM), McDonnell (VA), Perry (TX), and Walker (WI), moderated by Aspen Institute CEO Walter Isaacson.
  • July 27: The Role of Special Operations Forces in the Global War on Terror featuring Admiral Eric Olson, commander, US Special Operations Command. In partnership with the Aspen Security Forum.
  • August 2: A Conversation with US Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan moderated by Elliot Gerson, EVP of Public and Policy Programs at the Aspen Institute.
  • August 9: Ten Years After 9/11 featuring former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Markle Foundation President Zoë Baird Budinger, former National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley, and 9/11 Commission Chair Philip Zelikow, moderated by ASG Director Nicholas Burns.

NEW VIEWS Documentaries & Dialogue features award-winning documentary films followed by discussions with their directors and special guests. The series began July 18 and continues throughout the summer at Paepcke Auditorium, co-presented with Aspen Film. For more info, please contact Beth Slater.

Aspen Clean Energy Roundtable, co-chaired by Samba Energy Chairman Jack Hidary and Manifest Energy CEO Andy Karsner will be July 21-24. By invitation only. For more info, please contact David Monsma.

Society of Fellows members are invited to a variety of events and programs in Aspen this summer. For more info, please contact Patrick Kelly.

2011 Aspen Seminars: Register now for one of our classic seminar offerings. For more info, please contact Charlene Costello.

  • August 13-19 (Aspen, CO)
  • August 20-26 (Aspen, CO)
  • September 17-23 (Aspen, CO)
  • October 1-7 (Wye River, MD)

@ New York, NY:

Business and Society Program announced the Aspen Institute's 2011 First Mover Fellows, mid-career professionals working within companies to unite business growth with a sustainable society in the products and services they are developing. For more info, please contact Dana Caryl.

Socrates New York Salon: The Emergence of an Impact Economy will take place Nov. 4-5. For more info, please contact Azalea Millan.

@ Wye River:

Senate Socrates Seminar (Oct. 28-30): The Role of Government in Today's Economy will take place at the Aspen Institute's Wye River campus; the opening reception will be in Washington, DC on Oct. 27. For more info, please contact Azalea Millan.

Around the World:

Global Initiative on Culture and Society, in partnership with the Royal Opera House Muscat of the Sultanate of Oman, will hold an Aspen Creative Arts World Summit in Muscat, Oman, November 28-30.

Aspen Global Leadership Network's ACT II: 210 Fellows from the Aspen Global Leadership Network from 27 countries, plus 90 Trustees and special guests gathered in Aspen July 7-10 at "ACT II 2011" - the biennial leadership summit - organized this year under the theme of “Stepping Up.” Watch video from the gathering here.

Aspen Ideas Festival Video
For full videos from the 2011 Aspen Ideas Festival visit aifestival.org/content/2011-festival-video.
Tzipi Livni, leader of Israel’s opposition and chairman of the Kadima party, spoke about the future of Israel.
New York Times columnist David Brooks discussed the "Modesty Manifesto."
Twitter co-founders Biz Stone and Ev Williams talked about the future of the Internet and their new project, The Obvious Corporation.
Tom Friedman talked about "How America Lost it’s Way in the World it Invented and How We Come Back."
Does money buy happiness? Robert Frank, Justin Wolfers, and Dan Gilbert discussed the "Economics of Happiness."
Obama campaign advisor David Axelrod discussed the changing landscape of US politics with TIME's Joe Klein.
Other Events
Videos from the 2011 Aspen Environment Forum can be found here.
The 2011 McCloskey Speaker Series welcomed Donna Brazile to talk about "Inequality and Recovery in Obama's America."
The Aspen GLobal Leadership Network reunion's (ACT II) opening dinner focused on the theme of fellows "Stepping Up." Watch full videos from all of the sessions here.
Tom Friedman moderated a conversation with Harvard Law Prof. Jonathan Zittrain and Sonal Shah of the White House Office of Innovation at this year's Socrates Program dinner on the impact of social media on global affairs.
As part of the Spotlight on Leadership Series the Council of Women World Leaders and the Embassy of Costa Rica hosted a talk with President Laura Chinchilla Miranda of Costa Rica.
Watch more
clips at aspeninstitute.org/video
Rewriting Broadband Regulation considers the domestic and international state of internet and broadband policies. The report reflects the issues and ideas raised at the 25th annual Aspen Institute Conference on Communications Policy.
Does the Supreme Court follow the people? This is the question Meryl Chertoff, director of the Justice and Society Program, asked herself during the 2011 Aspen Ideas Festival. Read her blog post on the subject.
The Education and Society Program released Forging a New Partnership: The Story of Teacher Union and School District Collaboration in Pittsburgh, documenting Pittsburgh's transformation from a typical, adversarial district-union dynamic to one of deep, substantive collaboration over the course of several years.

Spectrum for the Next Generation of Wireless explores possible sources of spectrum, looking specifically at incentives or other measures to assure that spectrum finds its highest and best use. The report is the result of the Communications and Society Program's Roundtable on Spectrum Policy.
More Institute publications at aspeninstitute.org/publications

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The Aspen Institute mission is twofold: to foster values-based leadership, encouraging individuals to reflect on the ideals and ideas that define a good society, and to provide a neutral and balanced venue for discussing and acting on critical issues. The Aspen Institute does this primarily in four ways: seminars, young-leader fellowships around the globe, policy programs, and public conferences and events. The Institute is based in Washington, DC; Aspen, Colorado; and on the Wye River on Maryland's Eastern Shore. It also has offices in New York City and an international network of partners.

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