An intellectually stimulating forum brought together 65+ participants to Ivy Plus European Leaders' salon on cyberwarfare : Who Controls the Internet - The New Global War, with high profile speakers Jean-Louis Gergorin, former VP EADS-Airbus, General Jean-Paul Palomeros, former Head Transformation NATO, Leo Isaac-Dognin, Capgemini Invent, co-authors of the insightful book 'Cyber- La Guerre Perpetuelle', for a cutting edge analysis and perspectives on the geopolitical, economic, sociological and human impacts of the new multifaceted global cyberwar between the US, Russia, China, Iran, Israel, North Korea and Europe. Speakers stressed the need for Europe to catch up fast on technology and AI to create a balance of power, control technology, the digital and the Internet, at all levels and in all forms, deepmind, deepfake, fakenews, darkweb..., and protect itself. While they gave a worrisome outlook on the future - before things improve if governments and institutions react rapidly, the atmosphere at the event, as IPEL endeavors to create, was elegant and warm. After the cocktail reception, we continued with a gourmet dinner in the beautiful Michelin starred restaurant Lucas-Carton decorated by Art Nouveau designer Majorelle, during which we were able to discuss in depth and be entertained with inside stories and anecdotes by three great minds.

Ivy Plus European Leaders partnered with the Stanford Business Club of France, led by Pascal Turchi, for a very interesting round-table on medium sized companies, whose vital role in upholding the national and global economy should be better aknowledged and supported. Maria Adle, president IPEL, moderated this educational debate with Philippe d'Ornano, Chair & CEO of Sisley, Co-President METI, Fanny Letier, Former Executive Director BPIfrance, Founder Geneo Capital, Charles Bedier, Partner and Head M&A at Deloitte. All spoke with passion about family-owned companies and mid-cap enterprises, explaining the ways they weave long-term ties to society, the economy and the future, and regretted that France had lost so many flagship companies to foreign investors since the 80's ( France and Germany had the same ratio of SME's till then).

The three speakers responded with alacrity to the questions of the audience of 85+ participants.

The discussions were followed by a book-signing by Fanny Letier and a cocktail reception at the beautiful Cercle de l'Union Interalliée.

The Ivy Plus European Leaders Dinner around vibrant and determined Chiara CORAZZA, Head of the Women's Forum, was very animated, with many challenging questions on the part of the international audience on the role of the Women's Forum in impacting society, changing mindsets and making women's voices heard across borders and economic sectors. Shouldn't we avoid the term "added-value" and use "missing-value" when speaking of women, asked one attendee. How accomplishments of extraordinary women in science and other fields should be made more visible; the "Me too" movement; outlooks in Asia, Iran, South & Latin America, the US and Europe were widely discussed. "Asian and Middle East women look up to the US as a land of equality and freedom, while the US, with the development of the digital - where men take most of the space, seems to have gone backward, and women's role in society and economy shrunk; how can we reverse this phenomenon?" I wondered. Chiara argued that Europe was always more advanced towards women's rights than the US. While describing The Women's Forum’s future goals, she expressed great faith in women of Asia & other continents to lead the way.

What is more exciting and cutting edge than two great minds and world-renowned in the world of Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science discussing the future of humanity, artificial intelligence versus human intelligence, the huge investments in AI, the impact of AI on our world? 

More than 130 people attended the Ivy Plus European Leaders event at the American Library in Paris, filling it to the brim, for the privilege to meet and hear internationally renowned AI Pioneer Stuart Russell Stanford-Oxford graduate, Professor at UCBerkeley, and Gérard Berry Professor at College de France, Head Research INRIA.  Our extraordinary speakers gave presentations, showed slides, swapped ideas.  Someone in the audience, expert in cybersecurity, asked: Why even compare Human Intelligence with AI?

Prs Russell and Berry responded to questions with a sense of humor, warnings & cautions, educational notions, new information on potential risks, and left us with challenging interrogations.

After a warm welcome by the Director of ALP Audrey Chapuis, spirited entrepreneurs Tram TRINH and Artus de Longuemar joined me in moderating.  The forum was followed by a cocktail reception and a dinner with our high profile speakers. 

The inspiring and extremely successful IVY PLUS EUROPEAN LEADERS forum Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humanity caught the attention of Forbes journalist Lauren Coleman: https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurencoleman/2018/06/27/heres-the-real-reason-youre-terrified-of-the-1-2t-ai-industry-but-dont-yet-truly-know-why/#54eeac711e28

How rewarding when a Dinner-Fireside-Forum turns out to be enlightening and exciting! The virtual world of online networking became real as 115 high profile alumni from Stanford, Harvard, HEC, IMD, IE, EPFL, College d'Europe, LBS, Chicago Booth, filled the Grand Salon dining room of the Maison des Polytechniciens to maximum capacity for the exclusive and innovative Ivy Plus European Leaders' Dinner-Forum bringing together Fabienne Arata, Head of LinkedIn-France, Damien Viel, Head of Twitter-France and the Founder & CEO of Shapr, Ludovic Huraux. The inspiring speakers were meeting each other for the first time and seemed to thoroughly enjoy the evening. Almost as much as us! Communicating in distinct styles, they presented the latest developments of their social networking & news sharing platforms, explained the most efficient ways LinkedIn, Twitter and Shapr can be used by leaders and businesses, gave tips, discussed wider issues regarding networking, impacts of social media and Internet, and shared news. They responded with professionalism, patience and warmth to the challenging questions of Maria Adle, President of IPEL and moderator Artus de Longuemar, Board of IPEL and Harvard, and of the audience, among which those of IPEL VPs Daniel Zumino Zand Tram Nguyen-trinh . Young Ludovic Huraux, who founded Attractive World at age 24, charmed with his storytelling talent. No matter the late hour, I have a hunch many attendees rushed to improve their profile and their presence on LinkedIn & Twitter, and join the Shapr community, as soon as they got home.

The world of entertainment reflects our thought processes, politics, economy, health, science, technology, our hopes, our dreams, our fears and the general transformations of society. Thanks to a stellar array of experts, more that 70 attendees, members and students, learnt about the trends, the business, the role and the impact of series and video games at the innovative IPEL's conference at EBS: 'The Future of Entertainment and Media: Series and Video Games'

After a word by Maria Adle President IPEL, Jean-Claude Cheminand-Serré President IMD, Jerôme Wagner President HEC Media & Entertainment, High profile Speakers Serge Tisseron - Psychiatrist, Dir Research Paris 7, Isabelle Veyrat-Masson - Dir Research CNRS-Dauphine), Robert Piret Professor ESCP, Olivier Mauco professor Science Po, and Laurence Malençon Director Innovation Hopscotch gave individual presentations, followed by a panel discussion moderated by IPEL-Harvard Board member Artus de Longuemar

95+ attendees from Ivy Plus European Leaders, HEC, IMD discovered with immense interest the fascinating field of Biomimicry in the magnificent salons of Swiss Life. Thanks to our exceptional speakers: Entrepreneur, bioscience thinker, international consultant and author of bestseller 'Free your Brain' Idriss Aberkane, architect Jacques Rougerie, who draws his inspiration from the sea, famous for his visionary underwater habitats, labs, marine research centers and other sub-quatic vessels (Galathée, Hippocampe, Seaspace, Sea Orbiter), Patricia Ricard, President of the Oceanographic Institute Paul Ricard, and Geoffrey Burns, Vice-President of Chronocam, which develops bio-inspired vision sensors replicating the human eye.