I just got an invitation to one of this year's RENAISSANCE WEEKEND...
For those unfamiliar, its an invitation-only event bringing together a diverse group of thought-leaders in business, government, media, science, sports etc for a weekend of off-the-record talks, lectures, meetings, activities, etc (my recollection from when my sister and her husband attended is that everyone is expected to contribute something from their area of expertise.
Previous attendees have included:
Buzz Aldrin
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Harry Blackmun
Angel Cabrera
Julian Castro
Wesley Clark
Bill Clinton
Hillary Clinton
Stephen Colbert
Esther Dyson
Betty Friedan
Eric Garcetti
David Gergen
Gabby Giffords
Neil Gorsuch
Alan Greenspan
Mariel Hemingway
Alexis Herman
Jon Huntsman
Lauren Hutton
Shirley Jackson
Lady Bird Johnson
Mark Kelly
Ron Klain
Nicholas Kristof
James Lovell
Thurgood Marshall, Jr.
Danny Meyer
David Miliband
Andrea Mitchell
Janet Napolitano
Bill Nelson
Peggy Noonan
Bill Nye
Leon Panetta
Deval Patrick
Scott Pelley
Susan Rice
Diane Sawyer
Ted Sorensen
Arthur Sulzberger
Larry Summers
George Takei
Peter Thiel
Raphael Warnock
Can't begin to guess where they got my name.
The Renaissance Weekends are like Fight Club: the first rule is, you don't talk about the Renaissance Weekend. There's a good reason for that: to get that many high-powered politicians, jurists, academics, businesspeople, and the like in a room with a lot of high-powered journalists, you have to have strict rules about confidentiality and off-the-recordness.
Since this was my first time, I wanted to be extra careful not to break any of the rules about that. So I checked with the organizers about what I could say, and they said I could say what I am going to say right now.
First of all, it's terrifying. Renaissance Weekends are like a cross between summer camp and the oral exams for a PhD. When you first get there it feels as though everyone besides you is a multi-millionaire venture capitalist who speaks 18 languages and is training for an Iron Man triathalon and has a book on the New York Times bestseller list. And then you realize you have to participate on panels with these people and come up, on the spot, with clever answers to questions you've never even thought about before. (I was asked what works of art from the 20th/21st century would survive. I'll tell you what I said in another post.)
http://archive.boston.com/bostonglobe/magazine/missconduct/2008/07/a_note_about_th.html
https://www.renaissanceweekend.org
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Go, Brooklynite. 