Chichi Conference Takeaway

While reading the February issue of Fast Company, I came across another example of the power of conferences to influence one's thinking. The article is about how Michelle Rhee, who resigned in October as Washington, D.C.'s schools chancellor, decided to start an organization called Students First (www.studentsfirst.org). She was being interviewed by Charlie Rose — while at the super-private Forstmann Little and Co. conference, held annually in Aspen. The article goes on: "As they discussed the problems with America's education system, a plan began to crystallize in her mind."

Iconoclast author and neuroscientist Gregory Berns, whom I interviewed two years ago for an article in the January 2009 issue of Convene, would not be surprised. A simple change of environment, he believes, can bring about perceptual breakthroughs.

Perhaps it's time to follow up with Dr. Berns to see if he thinks a virtual environment can successfully jog the perceptual system out of its routine way of thinking.