Renaissance Weekend

7:30 AM

Healthy Starts  (Fun Run/Vigorous Walk through Points of Local Interest ... Pilates & Yoga)

8:00 AM

ACADEMIES:  (3-hour in-depth presentations & discussion)

Restoring the American Dream  (Will the Nation that Led the World in the 20th Century Sink into History in the 21^st?)

Energy Futures  (Wind, Solar & Biomass, Deep-Sea Drilling & New Oil Reserves, Natural Gas, Shale, Tidal & Wave Systems, Synthetic Genomics and What's to Come)

Through Hollywood's Lens  (How Do Films & Shows Reflect, Influence & Shape Values & Public Opinion?)

God's Divisions, Resurgence & Globalization  (How Can Faith-based Groups Address Inter-faith Tensions, Employ the Resurgence of Religion, and Utilize Globalization to Improve International Security & the Lot of Those in Need?)

8:00 AM

PARTICIPANTS PANEL DISCUSSIONS:

Reading, Writing and . . . Redefining the Classroom  (Moderated by the former US Secretary of Education)

Living (Well) to 100  (A Multi-disciplinary Review of Advances in Holistic Health, Vitality & Aging)

Tylenol Moments  (Evaluating Toyota's, Goldman's & Other Companies' Management of PR Fracases)

Serving the World  (Learnings of the Social Entrepreneurs & Non-profits' Leaders)

IP Bartalk  (Emerging Trends, & Surprising Outcomes, in Protecting Genius)

Inspiring the Human Spirit  (What Will the Next Century Treasure from Contemporary Art?)

Mapquest  ("The world is a book:  those who do not travel read only a page."  Augustine:  True in a Virtual Age?)

9:00 AM

SEMINARS:

Multiple Intelligences  (The MacArthur Prize-winner's Latest Findings)

Homeland Insecurity  (What's Obvious, What's Not, about Cyber-terrorism, Cargo Attacks, Underwear Bombers, Subway Germ Infestation & the Threats Around Us?)

Has the Web Had Its Day?  (Eclipsed by Skype, Netflix, Peer-to-peer, and a Quarter-million+ Apps?)

AI 3.0  (The Chief Architect's Account of History's Largest Artificial Intelligence Project)

The War on Cancer  (Leading Authorities on the Science, Obstacles, Funding & Progress)

Womenomics  (How the Lot of Women-in-the-Workplace Has Changed . . . And How It Hasn't)

Alertative Investments' New Landscape  (Hedge Funds, Private Equity & Real Estate)

How'd We Rate?  (Journalists' News on "News" — How We Get It Now; How It's Gathered)

Small Change, Huge Changes  (The Miracles, Mishaps, & Critics of Microfinance)

Kids  (Childhood & Adolescence in World History)

10:00 AM

CORNERSTONE PRESENTATIONS:

The Wisdom of History  (Musings of One of America's Most Acclaimed Lecturers)

wikiLeaks  (Treason, Trouble or Beneficial Transparency?)

Super-Crunchers  (Why Thinking by Numbers Is the New Way to Be Smart)

"Houston, We've Got a Problem"  (Astronauts' Missions & Mishaps)

11:00 AM

PARTICIPANTS PANEL DISCUSSIONS:

Taking "Mad Men" Digital  (Why Don Draper Is History?)

If You Innovate, They Will Come  . . . Or Will They?  (Sagas of High-intensity Entrepreneurs & VC's)

Life Sciences 2.0  (Engineering Life & Other Incredible Stuff)

Is Race Still the Elephant in the Room?

A Billion Reasons To Give (What Can We Learn from Bill Gates' & Warren Buffett's Endeavor to Pursuade Others of the Super-Rich to Accelerate & Increase Their Generosity?)

Shelf Life (Publishers, Editors & Best-selling Authors — Getting Written, Getting Published, Getting Read)

Executive Suite  (Making Change Happen When It's Tough, and It Always Is)

Hand-on-Helping  (Who's to Provide Care-giving & Social Services?  How to Fund?  What Accountability?)

On with the Show  (Artists, Directors & Curators — What's New with Museums, Galleries, Concerts & Shows?)

What I Wish My Parents Had Tole Me (Earlier)

YOUTH SEMINARS & WORKSHOPS:

Is "Friend," the Noun, Virtually Meaningless Now that "Friending" is a Verb?

Admissions on Admissions 
(Or, How You Can Compete with that Tuba-playing, 2400-SAT, North Dakota High-jump Champion Who Won the National Science Fair for Discovering the Cure for Cancer, but Missed the Award Ceremony, Which Conflicted with the Opening of the Ethiopian Orphanage She Had Founded)

Legacies 
(What Did Our Parents' Generation Give Us?  What Our Generation Wants to Pass On)

12:00 PM

LECTURES:  

Quantum Computers  (A Nobel Laureate's Introduction to a Startling Way to Process Information)

"9-to-5," "You Just Don't Understand," "The Argument Culture," "You Were Always Mom's Favorite"  (Snippets of the Best-selling Author's Favorite Writings)

Play  (How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination & Invigorates the Soul)

"Text-Me"  (Are We Now Alone Together?:  How Our Use of Media Is Affecting Relationships)

"One Nation, under God, Indivisible . . . ," Still?  (What's Happening to America's Civic & Religious Consensus?)

Opening the Metaverse  (Convergence of the Virtual & the Real)

Brainstuff  (The Neural Circuitry of Perception)

1:00 PM

LUNCHEON BUFFET  (Round-table Discussions with Designated Leaders)

1:45 PM

ALTERNATIVE PLENARY PANELS:

The State of American Politics  (Views from the US Senate, Congress & Governors' Offices)

The He-cession  (Has the Centuries-old Era of Male Dominance Come to an End?)

A False Recovery — Are We Stuck Here for Awhile?  (Economists', Investors', CEOs' & Officials' Investment Outlook)

3:00 PM

ACADEMIES:  (3-hour in-depth presentations & discussion)

Innovation 2.0  (How's Innovation Itself Changing, as Enterprises Deconstruct & Reorganize into Extended Value Networks of Entrepreneurs, Partners, Suppliers & Customers?)

Fewer Dragons, More Snakes  (Modernizing America's National Security Strategy)

The Decade of Smart  (Self-organized Future Trends Chatroom Addressing Topics Chosen by Participants)

3:00 PM

PARTICIPANTS FREE-FOR-ALL DISCUSSIONS:

No More "City Limits"?  (The Future of America's Cities)

Secret Sauces (How CEOs & Entrepreneurs Make Good Organizations Great)

Cooling the Earth, Post-Cancun  (If a Carbon Tax, Cap-&-Trade, & Climate-change Diplomacy Seem Less Promising, What New Approaches Should Be Advanced?)

Managing Risk Before Risk Manages You

Does Information Truly Want to Be Paid For?

Lawyers with the Dragon Tatoos (Rewarding Experiences In, and Around, the Law)

Friendship, Love & Sex on Campus  (What's Misunderstood?)

Street Smarts  (How to Retire at 40, How Not to Outlive Your Financial Resources)

TEENS SEMINARS:

The Right Stuff  (Candid Thoughts on Relationships)

Combating Group Think

Who Needs Facebook? 
(Why Not Dogster, Potspace, CafeMom, GoFISHn, Twitter, Curse, Eons?)

4:15 PM

CORNERSTONE PRESENTATIONS:

The Biology of Love  (The Nature & Chemistry of Romantic Love)

Flashes of Genius  (8-minute Glimpses of Extra-ordinarily Novel Thinking)

An Immodest Proposal — If I Could . . .  (Serious & humorous 2-minute proposals on policy, work, religion, money, sports, celebrities, relationships, or whatever you dare)

5:15 PM

LECTURES:

The Epic History of the American Economy

Is Estrogen the New Ritalin?  (Its Neurological Effects)

Fortune Cookies  (What Christians Don't Understand about Islam, What Muslims Don't Understand about Christianity)

Much Better Mousetraps  (The Historical & Cultural Context for American Technological Innovation)

Does the Panda Have Two Faces?  (China's Tension between an Open Economy & Its Closed Political System)

Besting the Bandwidth Beast, Avoiding a Digital Dark Age  (Can New Mobile Technologies Avoid Congestion?  How Can Next-Gen Networks Keep Pace with Demand?  What About Data Longevity & Storage Mediums?)

Next Course  (Singling Out Tomorrow's Sensations in Travel, Dining & Hotspots)

6:45 PM

Making Sense of the Wine List  (Connoisseurs- & Collectors-led Wine-tasting)

7:00 PM

RECEPTION

PARTICIPANTS FREE-FOR-ALL DISCUSSIONS:

Politics Aside  (What Makes a Difference in Our Communities?)

Turnarounds & Lift-offs  (Taking Innovation from Idea to Impact)

Dodging the Bullets  (How Non-profits Have Survived & Prevailed During Tough Times)

The Practical Practice of Politics  (What November Showed Us, Behind-the-scenes)

Millennials  (How Best to Manage?  What's Truly Different?)

Brick & Mortar'd  (Has Real Estate Bottomed Out?)

The World Is Not Flat  ("Avatar," "Alice" & the Future of 3-D)

Learning to Love Social Media  (Will Online Communities Change Everything?)

Not Commonly Discussed (Disabilities, Deafness, Autism, Substance Abuse & Other Conditions)

Design Innovations & Controversies  (In Art, Fashion, Architecture & Tech Products)

Have Psychology & Psychotherapy Become Too "PC"?

YOUTH PANEL DISCUSSIONS:

               Instant Karma?  (Is Social Media Turning Us Into Better People?)

               "Do the Right Thing" 
                   (What's the Difference Between Doing the Right Thing and Doing Things Right?")

               Taking on Tomorrow 
                    (Skill-sets, Course-corrections & Policies Required for the Future We Seek)

8:00 PM

DINNER BUFFET  (Round-table Discussions with Designated Leaders)

8:45 PM 

PLENARY:  Brainteasers  (8-Minute Mini-Lectues Challenging Common Premises, Practices & Beliefs)

LATE-NIGHT ENTERTAINMENT:
Piano Master Class  (Concert Pianist's Performance, Interpretation & Commentary)
Movers & Shaggers  (Swing, Salsa, Tango & HipHip Lessons)
Moving Bishops Forward  (Chess Tips from Champs)
Coffee-House-Days Concert  (Folk Music Favorites)