CLICK NY: Education Panel

The Education Panel consisted of (from left to right above) moderator Liz Danzico, Ale Lariu, Chloe Gottlieb and Matthias Hansson. Here’s some information about who they are and what they shared:

Chloe Gottlieb, VP/Executive CD of Interaction Design at R/GA, the interaction group alone is 60 people. R/GA has some high-level external speaker come in and talk about topics but they are now concentrating their focus and energies internally. Thought leaders working within R/GA are giving talks and wokshops. They understand the people and the needs, they understand the culture so it’s more succesfull than external speakers. Who do you know, who is in your network and use THEM as your teachers. As soon as people feel that they’re not learning anything anymore, they’ll leave. You always have to have an enviroment that lets your employees grow. R/GA lets employees have their own practices and become subject matter experts. Motto: Stop talking start doing. Motto: Be the change you want to see.

Matthias Hansson CEO of Hyper Island, a two-year university course in Sweden focused on on-line related technologies, products, services and businesses. At Hyper Island they don’t teach any tech courses. Hyper Island has no books, no teachers, no clasrooms, no exams, no homework – they are entirely focused on self-development and group dynamics and bringing in people in from the industry. Motto: If you get to learn your inner self, then you will become a good plumber or digital designer…

Ale Lariu, Co-Founder She Shays US, an organization that promotes women in digital advertising, which started in the UK in march 06. She started she says US in 2007. They gather monthly to have an intelligent debate on interesting topics, and no, they are not man-haters. Motto: Be scared at least once a week, Get out of your comfort zone.

I would have loved to hear Chloe talk some more about her experiences and insights of leading the Interaction department at R/GA. Everytime I get to listen to panel discussion, there’s this one panelist that I’d wish would have given the chance to present instead of being part of a panel. Do I just not ‘get’ panel discussions? Am I expecting too much? Why do I always walk away with a feeling that these conversations just scratched the surface? (enter panel discussion sigh here)