Douglas Rushkoff's @BIC Asks: Are You on Team Human?
On Tuesday, March 19th, our first @BIC Lecture of the semester, "Are You on Team Human?" followed BIC's Spring Open House as Digital Theorist Douglas Rushkoff offered up highlights of his latest manifesto. Weaving an engaging narrative on the power of human connection and how modern forces threaten our sense of community and well being, Dr. Rushkoff proved why MIT has proclaimed him one of the “world’s ten most influential intellectuals.”
During her introduction, BIC Program Director Nancy R. Tag noted that BIC's Fall semester had been jammed packed with an incredible series of @BIC Lectures -- from IPG CEO Michael Roth to design icon Paula Scher, from Ketchum CEO Barri Rafferty on "Notes from Davos" to industry prognostications at "The Future in Five."
It seemed like too much excitement for one year. But then...out came the publication of Douglas Rushkoff's latest book Team Human and we couldn't pass up the opportunity to invite this amazing author, professor, and theorist to campus for an @BIC Lecture and celebratory book signing.
What does it mean to be on Team Human? This is a question that BICsters ponder in our program as it relates to branding and communications. It’s a debate in the tech world. In politics. And in our everyday life.
On page 199 of Team Human, Dr. Rushkoff writes: “Those of us seeking to retrieve some community and connection today do it with greater awareness of the alternatives. We don’t retrieve collectivism by happenstance, but by choice.”
And so we were delighted that so many people chose to be collectively @BIC on Tuesday evening to connect to this important, very human voice.
ABOUT Douglas Rushkoff: Named one of the "world's ten most influential intellectuals" by MIT, Douglas Rushkoff is an author, documentarian, and professor at Queens College who studies human autonomy in a digital age. Team Human is his twentieth book. His productions include PBS Frontline documentaries "Generation Like," "The Persuaders," and "Merchants of Cool." His book Coercion won the Marshall McLuhan Award. The Media Ecology Association honored him with the first Neil Postman Award for Career Achievement in Public Intellectual Activity.
ABOUT The @BIC Lecture Series: BIC's signature forum brings thought leaders and industry icons to campus each semester. Past lecturers have included IPG's Michael Roth, Ketchum CEO Barri Rafferty, Iconic Designer Paula Scher, TBWA\Chiat\DayNY CEO Rob Schwartz, GroupM CDO/CEO Rob Norman, Golin CEO+ Matt Neale, Weber Shandwick President Gail Heimann, as well as authors Michael Farmer, Douglas Davis, Marion Salzman, and Sandra Stahl.
