Sunday at the Conference On World Affairs

I finally have an excuse to create a personal blog. I’m going to start it by writing about my experiences here in Boulder attending the 57th annual Conference of World Affairs (www.colorado.edu/cwa). It’s sponsored by the University of Colorado at Boulder, and essentially it’s idea is to get 100 or so interesting people together for a week, talk about all kinds of things based on a one sentence idea, then mingle with each other every evening to see what connections arise from this stew. There are a large number of sessions across a wide range of topics. The panelists don’t even necessarily know a lot about the subject, but hey you’re stuck up there, so you might as well take a swing at it!

I got involved in it because my friend Paula Sharick is responsible for the technology track of the science committee and thought I was diversified to interest the conference. Apparently I was, because here I am. Whether I'm interesting enough to be invited back remains to be seen.

I’m staying at a host’s house, which means I’m a houseguest to Caryl and David Kassoy. David is a theoretical mathematician, and Caryl is a musician and "professional volunteer" (David's words, not mine). It’s weird housing with someone I basically just shook hands with, but they’re comfortable with it. I have a nice downstairs bedroom with a very nice bath and tub (it even has a view) all to myself. The house, nestled up near the end of housing and the beginning of the Flatirons, is a bi-level all kind of corkscrewed on itself, so it’s quite cool. They have large windows looking across the street towards a mesa, and you can see Boulder reservoir in the distance. Much like Paula, they moved here a long time ago – no later than 1970 – and have kept it ever since.

The CWA people are interesting, from both ends. The participants are all here because they’re special in one way or another. The common question among participants has become, “So why do you think they picked you?” I think one answer is well roundedness (is that a word?). The CWA organizers are almost as interesting. They’re very successful people at the university and in the community.

Tonight’s “get to know each other” party was I think a taste of what the week will be. It was held at the University of Colorado President’s residence, and I was greeted at the door by a regent of the university. At the outdoor party, one of the first couples I met were also first-timers, so we had a nice conversation. A moment later, an accounting professor walks up to the husband and says, “I have a friend who interviewed with you at the Wharton School”. He replies, “Oh, I’ve interviewed many people for the Wharton School.” It turns out that his name is Ron Frank, and among his many other achievements he was the director of research and PhD program at the Wharton School of Business – arguably the most prestigious business school in the country. I discovered that this pattern would be repeated over and over again throughout the week.

Reeling slightly from this, I collected some dinner and sat down next to some folks in a corner. The organizers are great at drawing attendees out of their shell, and so I was quickly introduced to an attendee next to me. Kevyn Lettau is a jazz singer, a first time attendee, and as it happened she was the other new panelist on my first panel. As two newbies thrown into the deep end, we hit it off immediately as we tried to figure out what the hell we were going to say on a panel entitled “The Future Of Music” with Dave Grusin. I soon met her husband, Mike Shapiro, who proved over the course of the week to be a fabulous drummer and a really warm fellow.

This was the first 30 minutes of the first party before five days of conference. I had a suspicion it was going to prove to be quite a week!