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As a speaker at this year’s Conference on World Affairs, I was asked to submit several ideas for potential panels. The conference organizers use the suggestions from speakers to come up with the conference program. I’ll find out which panels I’m on only a week or two before the conference. The intent is that speakers will be on some panels where they know the topic well and others they don’t. I’ve heard each panelist (around 4 per panel) gets 10-15 minutes to riff on the panel topic.

Based on the panels from last year’s conference, the topics range all over the board. I was encouraged to come up with ideas based my areas of expertise and some of general interest where I’m a non-expert. Below is the list I sent to the CWA staff. I have until Feb 15th to submit additional ideas. If you can think of any other interesting topics, post a comment!

In no specific order:

• What the Internet tells us about society
• Print books: Inefficient relics in 10 years?
• The future of print media
• What it means to have written a book
• The Missing Piece of the Open Source Software Puzzle
• What Book Publishing and Venture Capital have in common
• Watching CBS makes me want to buy a Tivo
• Put down the computer and step away - a session on computer addiction
• A world without email
• Part-time vs Full-time Graduate programs
• What’s in a (graduate school) name?
• MBA vs DIY - what is better: Ivy League or School of Hard Knocks?
• Chord-style piano vs classical training
• Ambition: Blessing or burden?
• How to attract the cream of the crop to the nation’s top political position