On September 28 and 29, I attended the Washington Ideas Forum at the Harman Center for the Arts in Washington, DC. Leaders in policy, business, technology, science, history, arts and culture engaged with top journalists from The Atlantic to discuss some of the most consequential issues of our time. This was my second year attending this specific forum, so I found it interesting to compare how topics and speakers differed from last year.

The sponsors, The Atlantic and The Aspen Institute, are instrumental in gathering the topics and speakers for The Ideas Forum. Together, they collaborate to introduce and discuss various non-partisan ideas and values promoting the betterment of society.

This year, a multitude of speakers with diverse backgrounds were brought to the stage.

1. Lonnie Bunch- Director of the newly-opened National Museum of African American History and Culture.

1. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, and Anne Schuchat, Principal Deputy Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, discussing the Zika virus in the United States.

1.  Whitney Wolfe- CEO and founder of Bumble.

1.  John Krafcik, CEO, Self Driving Car Project, Google.

1.  Sec. Jeh Johnson, Department of Homeland Security.

1.  John Hanke- Founder and CEO of Niantic; designer of Pokémon Go.

1.  Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), Speaker of the House.

1.  Drew Gilpin Faust- President, Harvard University and John DeGioia- President, Georgetown University.

1.  Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Former President of Pakistan.

1.  Sec. John Kerry, Department of State discussing world affairs.

1.  David Chang, Chef and Founder of Momofuku.

The list goes on and on, but I wanted to reiterate how the speaker forum offered a variety of speakers and discussed unique topics that were relevant to today’s society.

Listening to these panel discussions exposed me to new ideas and intellectual conversations. I personally enjoyed Whitney Wolfe discussing her successful app development and John Krafcik, updating his Google Self Driving Car Project. In addition, John Hanke, the founder of Pokémon Go, shared the innovation behind his widely popular app. The idea came from a history and city tour app that took tourists to historic sights within a city. In fact, most of the PokeStops are the same historical landmarks from that same app.

Similar to the panels, The Forum hosts 6 different lunch breakout sessions. Each attendee can choose which specific session interests them the most, so because it relates to my generation, I chose “What the Kids are Thinking”, moderated by Derek Thompson, Senior Editor at the Atlantic.  Neha Ghandi from Refinery 29, Brad Jenkins from Funny or Die DC, and Natalie Moss from Millennial Week were the panelists there to discuss substantial questions regarding the future of young-adults such as, “As people live longer and retire later, how can today’s young people plan for a successful career as the world rapidly shifts? In a time of tense partisanship, what are the young adults looking for in building our future? How have cultural shifts changed the next generation?”

Some of the other sessions were:

1. “Where We’re Going”- discussions from the top minds who are pushing the human race to leap to Mars and raise the first generation of Martians.

1.  “Who’s Winning the Election”- dissecting the state of the presidential race, the first debate, and how this election will affect the country’s future.

1.  “What We’re Eating”- emphasizing the raging debates about the ethics of GMOs and labeling from local food experts, chefs, and restaurants; enlisting a conversation about food from sustainability and food waste to healthy eating, and how food culture is affecting our waistlines.

1. “Are We Safe?”- diving into the future of ISIS, how terrorism is affecting the election, and the future of our national security policy.

1. “Where Will the Jobs Be?”- The discussion of Google’s self-driving cars and other technologies that in the future may eliminate thousands of jobs from our economy. “Where will the jobs be? What will Americans do for work in the next 50 years?”

I thoroughly enjoyed the exposure to some of the best minds in current American thought and hope to continue returning to D.C. for this outstanding forum and discussion.

 

Liza Morris ‘17