This year’s Net Impact conference was a big, energizing experience. Held at the Columbia Graduate School of Business (my alma mater), we had hundreds of speakers and professionals as well as students. Everyone was overflowing with information, and unlike the Ad Tech conference I attended at the beginning of the week, there was no hype!

Net Impact has come up with a more succinct mission statement: Business Leaders for a Better World. As much as I like the last executive director, the new director has me very excited about the organization’s ability to grow its awareness and capabilities. Liz Maw is not only listening to our members, but she has lots of valuable suggestions to share.

One of the best sessions was Creative Leap’s Concert of Ideas. A group of professional musicians and actors performed snippets of plays and music organized around the ideas we’d met to discuss at the conference, as well as opportunities to lead and contribute new ideas. It wasn’t just stimulating, it was nourishing. Sessions like this are very valuable in helping me see into a different set of ideas I never noticed before. It leads me to wonder what kind of role the arts could play at FastHouston.