SEMINARS
Connect and Reflect
The Aspen Institute Executive Leadership Seminars use moderated, text-based dialogue to allow leaders from all sectors to step back from day-to-day concerns and reflect more generally on the core values by which they lead. What do we believe, and why do we believe it? Why do we do what we do? What does a good society look like, and what is our role in helping create it? Aspen Institute Executive Leadership has crafted a special program for the ArtPlace Summit with the aim of deepening our reflection, synthesizing what we learn in other sessions, and strengthening the connections among us.

What to expect from the seminars 

The aim in these discussion sessions is to provide space and time to step back from day-to-day concerns and reflect more generally on what we believe, why we believe it, and why we do what we do. That is to say, the seminars are designed to be reflective explorations—the aim is not to teach or persuade, but explore the contours of our inner personal and professional lives.  An Aspen Institute seminar is essentially a collaborative journey.

With the help of an experienced moderator, each participant contributes her or his own reflections, experience, and curiosity to the Great Conversation. Correspondingly, the success of the seminar depends on each person being willing to contribute to the discussion and to make room for the contributions of others. There are no right or wrong answers—the seminar is not a class but a laboratory of ideas, experiences, and values in which conversation and mutual engagement is key.  

Short readings, given to you upon arrival at the Summit, will provide the starting point for our discussions, which will be led by an experienced moderator. In the discussions, we’ll engage both head and heart, and have an opportunity to synthesize not only our own experiences but the other things we’ve heard and learned during the summit.
 

Your seminar moderators!

Our hashtag throughout the summit is #ArtPlaceSummit. For more details and live updates go to the ArtPlace Summit Guidebook App.