My experience last night with several other speakers on the ride to Camden from the airport supports that prediction. I rode in a van with essayist Anthony Doerr, photographer Chris Jordan, educator and school founder Dennis Littky, and eating designer Marije Vogelzang. The stimulating conversation on the hour long ride covered everything from learning models (Dennis believes that the age of everyone needing to know one set of predetermined information - reading, writing, 'rithmatic - is long gone), to patterns of consumption (our use of plastic is like a Greek tragedy in that we contribute to the pollution that ultimately leads to our own disease and demise). And that was only the beginning...
Starving from my trip (at least that was my excuse...the flight was only an hour and a half...), I went to dinner my dear, dear friend Michael Skolnik and sat at a table with the founder the Hip Hop Theatre Festival founder, the founder of Treehugger.com and one of its writers, a brilliant young real estate guy turned humanitarian who runs the Make It Right Foundation in New Orleans....the list goes on and on. The conference hasn't even begun and I'm already inspired by the sheer energy of the people I've come into contact with.
So my speech is this morning during the 11:00 session and I'll be following the humble sensation, Braddock, PA mayor John Fetterman. If I can give back a fraction of what I hope to receive at this conference, I will consider it a job well done.
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