ideacity featured in Russian Week

ideacity 2015 was lucky enough to have a reporter from Russian Week join us for this years conference. Check out their experience below.

Please note this article was originally written in Russian and has been translated. Click here to read the original Russian

More and more we hear that our time is in dire need of new ideas. As if in response to complaints, in Toronto, there is already some “incubator” of ideas, “MARS”, “Center for Social Renewal”, “401 Richmond Street”. It is an organization with a serious monetary base, elegant rooms with high vaults and doors are always open.
However, the slow work of civil corporations is not the only way to solve problems. There are so many, they are large-scale and often mysterious, that even their active discussion requires authors and successful test bold ideas, regardless of their place of origin.

Moses Znaimer, the famous founder of the ZoomerMedia Limited, has collected this summer from all over the most passionate fighters for their ideas in Toronto on a three ­day festival.

One of the most prominent guests of the festival became Lord Nigel Lawson, the former Secretary of the Treasury in the government of Margaret Thatcher, then a member of the British Parliament. As a proud conservative, he has always stood for the coal and oil as the most reliable support for today’s industry and svoїm report unnerving “green” with their promotion of “alternative energy”, he urged the audience statistics on the ineffectiveness and even dangers of windmills and solar panels . Lord Nigel also criticized the Pope for his support of alternative technologies, arguing that it is an attack on millions of poor people.

A strong personality in the “City of Ideas” Znaimer proved enough.

Born in Egypt, the Rev. Majed El Shafie was tortured for having converted to Christianity and demanded equal rights for Egyptian Christians. He was sentenced to death, but he fled from Egypt and settled in Canada in 2002, creating OFWI an organization that helps persecuted Christians to emigrate to Canada.

Promises of another guest, Dr. Aubrey de Grey, bordered on the fantastic. The chief editor of the journal “Rejuvenation Research”, he believes that, thanks to molecular biology, people learn to reduce the process of cell damage of the human body to a minimum. In the near future it will allow to extend the life of the
timing, seemingly improbable today. Moreover, De Grey regards aging as a disease that can be avoided.
His optimism was echoed by other prominent scientists, the guests “Idea City”: a geneticist Dr. Charles Cantor, Dr. Olga Kovalchuk, a specialist in Endocrinology and Nutrition Dr. David Jenkins, Deborah Devine a specialist in innovative restorative yoga.

Returning to the problems of decent society, participants and guests got acquainted with the opinion of the writer Nicholas Carr and Andrew Keen, claiming in one voice that the digital revolution ­ did not step forward to a brighter future, according to most people. According to them, quite the contrary ­ it is a serious rollback of mankind into the abyss of ignorance and superficial judgments. In his address to the public Carr recounted in detail the content of his book “Shallows: What Internet Is Doing To Our Brains”, which pointed to the devastating social and individual consequences of the ever­ growing dependence on the Internet. Andrew Keen at the time of its session, spoke about his new work ­ the book “Internet is not the Answer”, where, in fact, warns about the same as that of Carr. I can not believe that he manages to combine these “seditious” views with Executive Director of the Salon “Future Cast” in Sillicon Valley! Such a negative attitude to the internet was quite unexpected ­ because it comes from two recognized and “connected” to a system of successful middle-aged Americans!

Among the participants of the festival were the rising stars of creativity. One of them ­ Jack Andraka already at age 15, invented a cheap way of diagnosing pancreatic and ovarian cancer. Now the young inventor who is 17, Jack had already acquired an international reputation: won the Jefferson Award, the most prestigious award in the United States, and it has already shot some documentaries.

Another young star David Steinberg, the young creator of crossword puzzles. David began composing crossword puzzles at 12 years, and at 18 years has done 170 crossword puzzles published in the New York Times. In addition, for several years, David edits crossword puzzles for the newspaper in Orange Country. His first book “Cromatics” came out in 2012, and the second ­ “Juicy Crosswords” ­ will appear in 2016.

As you can see, even from our very abbreviated list of speakers and topics of the reports, a range of collective reflection in the “City of Ideas” was unusually wide. However, festival organizer Moses Znaimer never lose sight of the entertainment element. It is understandable ­ all ideas are served and sold during the show! And the fact that the show should be, above all, entertaining, and how to do it, Mr. Znaimer, former owner of CityTV, knows perfectly!

Conversations on sensitive issues in a rented them the concert hall of the Royal Conservatory, he skillfully intertwined with a variety of entertainment: the ball of fire, a successful choreographer and dancer, Angelica Skannura a belly dancer and most serious environmental outrages of our time together jump up from his chair and children’s joy echoed her movements in the castle Loma arranged a lavish banquet, and the drone photographed from above to entertain the elite, and then all the unusual offer to try massage. One of the main entertainment and lures “Idea City” was “to rub shoulders” with prominent guests and some lucky even to shake hands with Znaimer! By the way, it is actively communicate with the public during all breaks and attended all the banquets after the lectures. As explains broshurka festival: “Break is” networking haven “. Here are tied unexpected friendship and business contacts that can help a man to take off the career ladder. ”

Toronto Festival ideacity 2015 is over, but if you are interested in new ideas, should hurry and now think about how to book tickets for the next year. By the way, when you buy a ticket in the category of “early bird” ­ it’s worth $ 3,500 plus tax, at the time, as for the purchase of a ticket just before the start of the festival will have to seriously invest: it costs 5000 dollars.