Welcome to the 70th Conference on World Affairs!
https://www.colorado.edu/cwa/sites/default/files/attached-files/cwa_2018_final_web.pdf
We’ve come a long way since 1948, when Howard Higman brought together a group of ambassadors and other policy leaders to discuss the state of the world! The University of Colorado has grown into a world-class institution with four campuses, Nobel Laureates, MacArthur “Genius Grant” fellows, and National Medal of Science winners, and the Boulder community has become an internationally connected population, leading the world in technology, science, space exploration, natural foods and innovation.
Our challenge is to maintain and grow the magic of a 70-year tradition even as we acknowledge the acceleration of change around us. Celebrating and leveraging the special town/gown relationship undergirding the CWA is fundamental to meeting this challenge.
We owe our success to the generosity of hundreds of volunteers, both students and community members, who research candidates, plan the program, and help to implement it by providing transportation, housing, production, and good cheer. Our success also depends on the generosity of the speakers and performers who come to Boulder without the promise of an honorarium and usually on their own dime. Thank you all!
We pause this year to look back for a moment, but we are focused on looking forward. This week, we’ll learn about the accelerated pace of technological advancements from futurist Tony Seba. We’ll celebrate giant steps forward for women, hope for the planet, and sufficient food for the 10 billion people expected on Earth in 2050.
Along the way, many of us will become newly (or more deeply) familiar with blockchain, Big Data, MOOCs, memes, catfishing and gaslighting. A Google DeepMind expert will show us how Artificial Intelligence can have a positive impact, Pixar’s Lighting Director of the Oscar winning film Coco will tell us why girls should code, and we’ll spend the week with one of the women responsible for the ICAN Nobel Peace Prize.
Our speakers and performers will arrive from every corner of the country and from 22 countries. Many will be familiar to you from past years, and 60% will be new. Nearly half are women, including the first Youth Poet Laureate of the United States.
We’ll wonder if Mueller is “Russian” to conclusions, and if we are tired of “winning” yet, and we’ll have fun, at the Jazz Concert and the Jazz Jam. We’ll relax under the glorious lights of the Aurora Borealis at Fiske Planetarium, we’ll dissect Mad Max Fury Road, but we’ll also worry about the Koreas, the Middle East, Russia and China…immigration and refugees.
As we look forward to an amazing week, we thank so many friends of CWA: the volunteers, the wonderful office team that makes it happen, our University partners, and the corporate, foundation, and individual donors who contribute so generously to the Conference. Thank you, one and all.
Download Documents: https://www.colorado.edu/cwa/sites/default/files/attached-files/cwa_2018_final_web.pdf
Enjoy this special week!
John & Betsy