About Our Seminars
"The Executive Seminar was not intended to make a corporate treasurer a more skilled corporate treasurer, but to help a leader gain access to his or her own humanity by becoming more self-aware, more self-correcting, and more self-fulfilling." - Walter Paepcke, Founder, The Aspen Institute
Participants in the core Aspen Institute seminars are experienced leaders, generally in senior management and heavily involved in setting the strategies of their organizations. This year's seminar participants included ambassadors, chief executive officers and senior leaders of multinational companies, entrepreneurs in the high-tech and new media field, heads of foundations, senior executives in the CIA and other government agencies, leaders of law firms and consulting firms. The Institute is committed to bringing together a diverse group of leaders.
For the past fifty years, the Aspen Institute Executive Seminar has brought together diverse groups of leaders to learn from each other and from some of the greatest thinkers of all time. Today, the seminar programs have expanded to address corporate responsibility, the character dimension of leadership, Asian cultures and values, and dilemmas of the digital age. Aspen Institute participants often return every few years for continued growth, development, and reflection with other leaders.
"The Aspen Institute Executive Seminar pushes the envelope of your thinking far beyond where you've already been. As an investor, an individual, and an active member of a community, I found the deliverables from the experience incalculable." - Jack D. Furst, Partner, Hicks, Muse, Tate, and Furst
At each seminar, approximately twenty leaders from a variety of fields, backgrounds, and cultures come together to learn from each other and from some of the greatest thinkers of all time. Teams of highly skilled moderators, all leaders in their own right, facilitate the Socratic discussions.
The Aspen Institute conducts its leadership seminars at two year-round, full-service facilities. The 40-acre Aspen campus is bordered by mountain streams and fields of wildflowers, just minutes away from the town center of Aspen, Colorado. The Aspen Wye River campus, 1,100 pastoral acres with three executive retreats, is located on Maryland's Eastern Shore.
All seminars are text-based, and participants are strongly encouraged to complete all readings before arriving, an estimated 25 - 35 hours of preparation. The seminar experience is challenging, but allows time for reflection and recreation. Seminar coordinators assist in organizing optional recreational activities, such as skiing or hiking.
