Berkshire Forum : A Three Day Think Tank Debuts in Pittsfield
The Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield is being turned into a Think Tank called The Berkshire Forum from September 14 -16. Tina Chase and Mary Collins George—veteran organizers of the Gilder/Forbes Telescom Conferences who work out of offices above Tom's Toys in Great Barrington—are bringing together some five dozen intellectuals, financial and technology experts, community and business leaders for lectures, panel discussions and performances. "We've always wanted to put together a conference in the Berkshires, and we decided that if we had one here it had to be Berkshire-centric," says George. "We wanted to make this accessible."
The conference is charging a single admission fee of $49.99 for all the programs. "Teachers and students get in for free," she says. "Since we're having it in the middle of the week, we expect people who can't take full days off will pick and choose the programs that most appeal to them." Many of the heavy hitters are speaking after office hours: Bill Little, former chairman of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce will speak on Tuesday night on "The Future of Business: Stabilizing the Fluctuating Job Market to Achieve Economic Growth at the Local Level," and Dr. Sanjoy Mahajan, associate director for Teaching Initiatives at MIT's Teaching and Learning Laboratory, MIT, will lead a round table discussion on "Advocating Excellence" in education. "He's one of the best speakers I've ever heard," says George. Click here for a complete schedule.
The conference is designed to be free-wheeling and improvisational. "We don't have paid speakers because they usually give canned speeches," says George. "And we banned Power Point presentations for the same reason, but we made an exception for Kevin Sprague because his talk ["Creativity is a Muscle: Building a World Where Creativity Thrives"] is so visual." One of the most intriguing panels is "Finding the Where of Happiness: Realizing the American Dream in Rural America" on Thursday at 2 p.m., which features Bill Hines Jr,, managing director, Interprint Inc; Perri Petricca, president, Unistress; Marc Roberts, founder, Superl Sequoia; and Kelley Vickery, executive director of the Berkshire International Film Festival. The final panel speaker will be Martin Baron, editor of The Boston Globe, who will discuss "Negotiating the Changing Media Landscape" in a conversation with Eugenie Sills, founder and publisher of The Women’s Times. And then every will be sent out onto North Street to mix it up at Pittsfield's 3rd Thursday street fair.
The Berkshire Forum
September 14 - 16
The Colonial Theatre
Pittsfield, MA
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