Symposium Stockholm – Brilliant Minds (Day 2)
Genuine stories propose journeys. You’re not in the same place at the end, as you are initially. Journeys propose stories, too. You pay with trust to share a car ride, to either hear or tell some of them. If the car, the people and the stories go well, you might call it a fun trip. If the people and their stories ensue valuable ideas, you may call it mindfull.
If you’d respond to Daniel Ek and your story would be Spotify, or Ash Pournouri with your At Night Management one, you could rally the name of the game to Brilliant Minds. You do. It becomes the flagship two-day event of the one-week long festival Symposium, which makes an argument for Stockholm to claim its name among creative capitals of the world.
CEO & Host of Brilliant Minds, Natalia Brzezinski
Natalia Brzezinski drives this thought-pooling journey. The ride customized with a futuristic tridimensional head, which might as well be the one articulating the theme Numanity – representing the symbiosis between technology and humanity with focus on music and creative industries – the ride therefore, attracts diverse and ahead-looking talents.
Per say, Nicolas Brusson, CEO of BlaBlaCar, whom looking back though, testifies for couples, rock bands and businesses emerged from his ridesharing community that he calls a social experiment of trust, rather than a database for people who need to travel with drivers having empty seats. Brusson presents the highlights of a survey by BlaBlaCar involving 18,000 members across 11 european countries, about trust and its implications within the shared economy, called Entering the Trust Age.
Brilliant Minds, 8th-9th June, Grand Hotel, Stockholm
The ride goes further with a social experiment of empathy proposed by Christy Turlington Burns, CEO of the maternal health organization Every Mother Counts, whom advocates for better childbirth conditions worldwide, including in USA, which ranks 46th in the world. The empathy exercise becomes much easier when you hear that 98% of the 300.000 annually deaths caused by complications during pregnancy or childbirth, are preventable: https://www.everymothercounts.org.
Raoul Scherwitzi, CEO of Natural Cycles, follows-up with an app alternative to the regular contraception methods, www.naturalcycles.com, while Niclas Molinder presents one for avoiding deception in the matter of music rights, https://auddly.com/, along with the Music Rights Awarness Foundation.
Boi1da and Savan Kotecha take the scene to represent The Ambassador Program included in the newly launched global initiative from Spotify, Secret Geniuses, meant to shine a light on the contributions songwriters and producers make from behind the scenes. In Savan’s case, from an airplane’s bathroom, where he once spontaneously recorded a bit on his phone, that ended up in an Ariana Grande’s song and in the audience’s grace, as he played the recording.
Spotify’s iniative is to take the form of awards, Songshops songwriting camps, curated playlists and podcasts. The inaugural Secret Genius Awards which will honor top songwriters, producers and publishers as well as up-coming talents, will take place in the fall.
Reversing the process, from spotlight to behind the scenes, Usher also twists the audience guilty expectation of hearing him humming a tune, into a serious, yet relaxed speech about the motivation to support the underserved youth, through a 10 year menthoring program within his non-profit organization, Usher’s New Look. Alongside him, stands Felicitas Reyes, alumni of the program.
You may not know his thoughts, but you know whom he is
The above mentioned speakers are joined, among others, by Glenn Otis Brown, Chief Digital Officer at Obama Foundation, Len Blavatnik, businessman, investor and philanthropist, or Nick Jonas, singer, songwriter and actor. The journey ends with Skip Markey’s live performance, following the previous ones of the day from The Aces, Tove Styrke, Frida Josefsson and Bea Miller.
Bea Miller perfomance
At the end of the journey though, you’re in the same Grand Hotel of Stockholm, as you were initially. But then again, you’re not the same. The conversation, innovation and creativity you surrounded yourself with, along with the selfie desire you surrounded Usher, enhaced you with new stories to share in new rides.
Still, if you didn’t want this one to end, you’ll know to follow Natalia Brzezinski in her newly The Brilliant Minds Podcast on Spotify, co-hosted with Rebecca Jarvis, from ABC News.
The Symposium festival will go on with EAT Stockholm Food Forum (12th-13th June), Polar Talks & Polar Music Prize (14th-15th June) and The Denniz Pop Awards (17th June). More info on the official website.
Material written by Lucian Talpes