KEYNOTE SPEAKERS PACK THE HOUSE FOR 'A DAY WITH
NORTHWESTERN'
April 28, 2016 | by Kristin Samuelson
EVANSTON, Ill. --- It was standing room only in Norris University Center’s auditorium for inspiring keynote addresses by Chicago-area luminaries at Northwestern University’s annual event, “A Day With Northwestern.”
Presented by the Northwestern Alumni Association (NAA) and
open to the public, nearly 400 attendees gathered for the sold-out program
April 9 to hear riveting keynote addresses from Orbert Davis, an Emmy
Award-winning musician and co-founder, conductor and artistic director of the
Chicago Jazz Philharmonic, and Howard Tullman, CEO of Chicago’s 1871 startup
incubator, as they highlighted the day’s presentations from prominent
Northwestern alumni and faculty.
Though from different backgrounds and industries, both
keynote speakers focused on a similar theme of urgency and the importance of
acting in the current moment.
Davis’ speech, “The Urgency of Now,” focused on four key
elements to pursuing anything important in life: dreams, faith, opportunity and
work.
“Dreams should always evolve,” he said. “My dream was to be
a musician and a catalyst for change. Faith is the substance of things hoped
for and the evidence of things not seen, and faith is positioned by
opportunity, which is built upon work.”
Davis earned his master’s degree at Northwestern in jazz
pedagogy in 1997 but said his passion while here was to learn as much as he
could about African and African-American history.
“I spent some of my fondest hours at the Melvin J.
Herskovits Library of African Studies,” Davis said. “It changed my life.”
Davis’ organization, the Chicago Jazz Philharmonic, focuses
on music performance, education and cultural diplomacy.
“We believed that music is the medicine for students who are
at risk for failure … and we believed that music involvement can save lives,”
Davis said, recounting why he founded music education programs for Chicago
children.
Davis spoke about establishing relationships and
exchange programs with young musicians from Cuba. He helped bring a group of
Cuban musicians to Chicago and Northwestern in 2015.
“We wanted our students to see the splendor of
Northwestern,” Davis said. “Because if you saw their facilities in Cuba, you
would cry … But maybe you wouldn’t, because when you hear these kids play, it’s
mind-blowing.”
During his speech, Davis played video clips from
performances and at one point spontaneously grabbed his trumpet and played to
illustrate how improvisation (in music and life) means responding to the
moment.
True to his industry, keynote speaker Tullman, a member of
the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law’s class of 1970 and a 1967 graduate of
the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, spoke swiftly and concisely. His
speech focused on seven current and future trends in technology and social
media, and his first point was about time being the scarcest resource of all:
1. “Time is the single vector on which every business will
have to compete. Today, it’s not the big that eat the little; it’s the fast
that eat the slow. If you’re not in a big hurry, you’re probably too late.”
2. “Data is the oil of the digital age,” Tullman said,
adding that the most important thing about the Internet is that it allows us to
measure what users are doing, take information and turn it into insights.
3. You are competing against everything for people’s
attention, and “the clutter is accelerating,” he said.
4. Social marketers and companies should aim for
“engagement, not eyeballs,” he observed. Don’t raise your voice, he said.
Improve your arguments. People want engaging, relevant and customized content
in the right place at the right time.
5. “We live in a world of constant connectivity,” he said.
More people have cellphones than ever had landlines. Worldwide, there are more
phones than toilets, he noted.
6. Tullman spoke about the importance of “cyberspace, not
any place.” Today, he said, “real time matters, not real place, because we can
be anywhere and everywhere at the same time.”
7. The Internet is changing attitudes toward sharing,
reputation and trust, Tullman said. Studies show that people don’t trust each
other as individuals, but they do trust “the crowd” that reviews and offers
products or online services they value. For example, through Airbnb, many
people will open their homes to strangers. It’s still unclear where this trend
will lead, he said, but it’s something to watch.
Tullman ended with a series of tips and practical advice for
innovators and would-be entrepreneurs.
His bottom line: Start now, focus and
don’t be afraid to make mistakes.
“Your greatest fear should never be failing,” he concluded.
“It should be spending your life succeeding at something that doesn’t really
matter.”
