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The historic Gusman Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Miami was recently buzzing with good vibrations when director Tom Shadyac came to screen his new film I Am.

John Esterle's remarks at the end of IVOH Summit

11:30 AM, September 18, 2011

In a quiet, serene town in the Catskills, on a brisk fall evening, people, strangers for now, gathered in the expansive hall of Peace Village for the 2011 Images & Voices of Hope Summit. After Executive Director Judy Rodgers' welcome, the microphone was passed around the room as introductions began -

I'm a human rights activist.

I'm a poet.

I'm a TV producer.

I'm a singer.

I'm an editor and a mom.

I'm a student.

I'm a photojournalist.

Our three-day journey had begun.

As a member of the IVOH Youth at last year’s World Summit I sensed a lot of worry regarding my generation’s detachment from the analog world. Living in the information (or digital) age it is often assumed we can no longer appreciate content that isn’t displayed on a screen. As a young adult in New York City I have found the opposite. Many members of my generation are making it a point to start projects that preserve the beauty in real-world interactions and media. By utilizing social networks (specifically Kickstarter and Facebook) these projects are launched from the ground up.

Last year I left the IVOH World Summit with a sense of hope I hadn't felt since I first dreamed of pursuing a career in photography. It was my first year in attendance, and I entered the conference as a proud member of the IVOH Youth. As I sat on the train chugging away from the Peace Village and entered the dark tunnels of Manhattan I remember feeling a sense of optimism that countered the doomsday prophecies I had learned to believe marked the end of journalism and the media industries.

What a pleasure it was to meet new people and see old friends at the Images & Voices of Hope conversation today (July 14) in Miami. It was a gathering of about 50 people who came to meet, discuss and reflect on the theme Media Change Makers in the New Normal. Award-winning documentary media maker and professor Sanjeev Chatterjee was one of our key speakers who talked about his lifelong desire to use media to create social change.

"I hope it's a Renaissance because Renaissance suggests enlightenment. And while we're clearly in a period of dramatic and permanent change, driven by change in technology, I think the biggest opportunity and challenge is that it be for the good."

SAM SIMON, Senior Fellow, Intersections International

It is hard to believe that twelve years have gone by since the first IVOH conversation in June of 1999 in New York City. One of the 200 people in the room that day was Tom Callanan who was moved not only by the animated conversation about the impact of media on society, but also ... by what we came to call the "inner media," the spiritual component created by the Brahma Kumaris. Tom said:

"I was attending a luncheon conversation with almost 200 journalists hosted by a program called "Images & Voices of Hope, when I first experienced drishti.