By Daniel Nguyen and Roger Orellana
Staff Writer/ Special to the Chronicle
Hofstra University and the Zarb Leadership and Consulting Association hosted it’s first TEDx event, which featured six speakers from various academic and professional backgrounds.
Nancy Kelley, director of The Nature Conservancy, recalled when Long Island was among one of the top shellfish producers, responsible for approximately 50 percent of the clams consumed along the east coast. Decades after the decline of shellfish production due to unsustainable fishing practices, The Nature Conservancy re-integrated millions of clams, scallops and oysters back into the local water, to no avail. The problem, Kelley explained, was nitrogen from antiquated septic tanks on Long Island. Nitrogen indeed has a role in the conservation of nature, but “too much of a good thing becomes a problem.” The seeping of nitrogen into the water triggers massive algae blooms, which incidentally kills a large portion of fish and shellfish. Considering all the pollution not only in Long Island but in the entire world, Kelley wondered how our situation would be 30 years from now, when the global population is estimated to grow to 10 billion people. Despite the bleakness of a polluted present, Kelley presented many examples of the cleansing of previously polluted bodies of water in the United States. As long as we put in the effort to maintain nature, she said “there are signs of hope. We can succeed.”
Zachary Metz, partner of the Consensus Group, discussed the “Future Visions of Peace.” Metz displayed a photograph of a desolated Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, and connected it to a violent reality far away from us. Metz spoke about his previous experience in large-scale approaches to stop large-scale acts of violence. Nevertheless, it was in the micro-level where he saw the most impact in achieving peace. He recalled the moment in Iraq when various segregated middle eastern groups of people united to celebrate a holiday and help each other out. Despite it being a small-scale occurrence, the implications of it were massive, demonstrating unity and solidarity amidst hatred and violence. Metz concluded that these small-scale interactions are extremely effective in working toward the larger goal of world peace. “Ninety-three countries are becoming more peaceful this year and nine geographic regions have gained a sense of peacefulness as measured by the GPI [Genuine Progress Indicator] ... All roads lead us back to the importance of intimacy and mundane connections in which people are crossing lines and making real change in societies that are struggling.”
Jason Jay, director of Sustainability Initiative at MIT Sloan, spoke on environmental activism in a world of polarity. Born in Boulder, Colorado, Jay brought his childhood love of nature to his extracurricular work as a graduate student at MIT where he joined an environmental activism group on campus. His work at Sloan has helped to ingrain sustainable business as an integral component of the curriculum. In his talk, Jay suggested students find energy in the world’s polarity. “What if we thought of that polarization as a kind of energy: an electricity, a healthy tension between different values,” Jay said. “Use that tension between different values to generate new ideas and possibilities.”
Frank Lackner, founder of Lackner Capital Advisors, spoke on the benefits of humor in business. His speech, titled “The Hindsight Fund: Investing Humor for Strategic Returns,” wove anecdotal advice with Lackner’s own version of standup. “I realized while doing both comedy and business that you can do both and that it’s not a bad thing to not be serious all the time. And then I vowed to never not use a double negative ever again.” To close his talk, Lackner speculated on the future of humor. “Will the future of humor incorporate AI perhaps? Will AI be able to create funny stuff in the future? I’m not sure."
Janice Gassam received a Ph.D. in applied organizational psychology from Hofstra. She spoke on emotional intelligence in an increasingly mechanical age. “Our interactions with machine will increase,” Gassam said. “Artificial intelligence (AI) is something that’s here to stay. As time goes on our interaction with people will lessen.” Gassam elaborated on the emotional intelligence required for success in personal and professional life. “Empathy in every aspect of our lives is crucial,” Gassam said. As AI continues to permeate the work space, Gassam said, “Increasing our emotional intelligence is going to be a skill that is more and more important as time goes on.”
The final speaker of the day, Chad Bouton, the vice president of Advanced Engineering at Northwell Health, shared his experience with bionics in the medical industry and insights into the issues facing the technology going forward. “The bionic age is here, and it’s not going away. It’s going to grow and accelerate and we’re going to continue to use technology in our bodies,” Bouton said. “We’re implanting technologies into our bodies to do things like treat cardiac conditions.” After speaking on the use of bionics, like cochlear implants, in the past and present of the medical field, Bouton concluded by commenting on the future of bionic growth. “What happens in the future?” Bouton asked. “What happens if we continue to merge with machines, in essence? If we focus on quality of life first, then everything should be okay.”