Highlights from IVoH World Summit 2009

The 2009 IVOH World Summit was absolutely stunning. The weather was gorgeous: the hills were on fire with color and we poured outside and onto the trails. The quality of conversation was high, taking us into a wide range of topics from the perpetual tension between the messages of advertising and those of journalism to the kinds of awareness that change our lives and work. And the periods of meditation gave us the breaks we needed for reflection.

PBS FRONTLINE'S David Fanning delivered all we could have hoped for and more - showing us five minutes of the riveting upcoming segment from Obama's War to talking us through the impact that new technology such as the Web and Apple's Tablet (still in design and prototyping) will have on television.

All of those who have discovered TED and wondered why it took so long to have the chance to hear June Cohen, the force behind TED talks, show us her picks and talk us through how it works behind the scenes.

Mike Hughes, who leads the brilliant Martin Agency (think Geico, Wal-Mart's sustainability efforts, Al Gore's Climate Change Campaign) took us from the most tender of reflections to the most grounded: "Changes at Wal-Mart will have a bigger impact on the world climate change situation than Al Gore."

We saw clips of the new Dove "Real Beauty" theatrical production, and heard Mike Hemingway on the difference between the work that brands do and the work that advertising does.

And then there was the thoughtful talk by Grammy winning composer Joan Tower on the work of community symphonies and her beautiful Made in America and the thrilling pianist Jonathan Yates.

But you can't capture the Summit through the highlights. The stories of those there were the glue- Thuy Vu's story of going from being a Vietnamese "boat person" to the creator of Radio Saigon in Houston with her husband. Fernanda Baumhardt's masters dissertation on using media to educate rural farmers in Malawi, Kim Spencer's story of the last ten years with Link TV, Georgia Poppelwell on the networked global infrastructure of bloggers known as Global Voices Online. Everyone had a story of ways that media is shifting itself and impacting the world.

You just had to be here. So we hope in the future you will be here. It is not any single talk or presentation that makes the IVoH Summit a standout experience. It is the hundreds of moments taken as a whole - the formal talks, the informal talks, the art, the walks, the periods of reflection and the natural beauty of the Peace Village. Please plan to join us next year and to tell your friends.