One of the most frustrating things about conferences or seminars in general is that their title does not always live up the claim that it makes. Which is one of the reasons why the 2011 edition of «Challenge the Best» was more than just a pleasant surprise.
The premise was this: Get together 42 students with a proven level of intel-lect and aptitude for the set topic (this year it was «exploring the hidden potential in the European mosaic of diversity»). Steer them academically, so that abstract concepts such as identity, conflict and social involvement can be envisioned in more concrete terms. Push them to come up with targeted and precise solutions, the viability of which they debate with prominent politicians, academics and civil rights activists in the field. In short, the final output is a true challenge to these guests instead of proposing feeble suggestions.
The conference, organised by the Student Union of the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, saw six eminent personalities being challenged: Dr. Lale Akgün, former member of the Bundestag, Lewis Feldstein, former President of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, Dr. Eberhard von Koerber, Co-President of the Club of Rome, Sir James Alexander Mirrlees, Nobel Laureate in Economics, Dr. Heinrich Rohrer, Nobel Laureate in Physics, and Professor Daniel Thürer, an eminent jurist and the President of the German Society of International Law.
I’m not going to bore you with what exactly happened at the conference. Instead, I’m going to talk about the one or two things that are going to stay with me for a long time. First, the friends I made and the people I met. It was remarkable that we managed to build such a great rapport and bonds that should hopefully last a while. The one evening that will be particularly etched in my memory is that of the opening dinner, when I was seated next to the debate moderator, Nisha Pillai, a BBC anchor and journalist who is also a fantastic motivational speaker. We spent an incredibly interesting few hours chatting about a whole range of issues; from CERN’s large hadron collider, to how 9/11 has changed us forever. Incidentally, Nisha did blog about the event and had a lot of nice things to say about it. You can have a look at it at www.nishapillai.com.
Second, I found Professor Rohrer’s views on diversity particularly intriguing. By emphasising the individual and discarding the notion of collective/group identity, he caused quite a stir. I personally disagreed with his idea of the individual as a lone ranger, with no social influence, with just his brain to define him. The concept may work in academia, where you have the time and space to research at your own pace, but I don’t see how this could work in business. For instance, a car company, which wants to roll out a new model in seven weeks because it knows that its competitor is coming out with a new product in two months, does not have the luxury of appreciating individual ideas. Its design team then has to work as a group, collec-tively. Prof. Rohrer’s thoughts were met with a certain amount of disconcertion. However, the irony is that this isolated view is in itself demonstrative of diversity. It added to the thrill of the challenge. At the end of it, that was the point of the whole conference; we don’t have to agree with every point of view, but just accept it as it is.
Third, there was much talk of Europe’s lack of assimilation as far as immigrants were concerned and the prejudices and stereotypes that continue to fester in the minds of the masses. Yet, at one of the post-session parties, this thought hit me like a freight train; this conference was a sociologically amazing feat. Just 60 years back, such a gathering of Germans, Poles, Czechs, Austrians and Asians, laughing, joking, debating and playing beer pong together, would have been unthinkable. Growing up, our grandparents would have scoffed at such an idea. I realised at that time that we are never going to be free of stereotypes and prejudices. The challenge thus is in overcoming the prevalent cleavages and accepting the fact that in the future, there are going to be different reasons for conflict. Challenge the Best was illustrative of the fact then, that by purging the ghosts of WWII to this extent, Europe has risen to this task very well.
To sign off: Challenge well accepted. Challenge well completed (Ulrich, you still need to colour your nose red for not high fiving a Nobel Laureate).
Gut zu wissen
«Challenge the Best» ist ein Projekt der Studentenschaft. Vom 25. bis zum 28.3. haben 40 Studierende aus 20 verschiedenen Ländern gemeinsam mit Nobelpreisträgern und Entscheidungsträgern über das hochaktuelle Thema «The European Mosaic of Human Diversity – The hidden potential» diskutiert.
Nach der Konferenz ist vor der Konferenz: Wenn auch du dich einbringen willst, einzigartige Erfahrungen sammeln und mehr lernen willst als in allen Kursen zusammen, dann sei Teil des Organisationsteams von Challenge the Best 2012. Weitere Informationen findest du unter www.challengethebest.org.