by Mitch Bogen
Correspondent
Cambridge, Mass.—The first “virtual” Ikeda Forum for Intercultural Dialogue demonstrated the very concept it explored: value creation.
With an in-person gathering not possible, the Ikeda Center for Peace, Learning, and Dialogue took the Dec. 10 event online—the positive result being that more than 300 global citizens from 27 countries were able to attend.
Called “Value Creation: Our Unlimited Power to Face Overwhelming Challenges,” the conversation featured scholars Anita Patterson, of Boston University, and Jason Goulah, of DePaul University, as well as three youth representatives from the Ikeda Center network.
Several excerpts from the works of Daisaku Ikeda, the center’s founder, inspired the forum, including the following from his 1996 address at Columbia University’s Teachers College: “Our daily lives are filled with opportunities to develop ourselves and those around us. Each of our interactions with others—dialogue, exchange and participation—is an invaluable chance to create value” (My Dear Friends in America, third edition, pp. 447–48).
Representative of the many insights shared during the event were a set of “value-creation mottoes” offered by the speakers, including Dr. Patterson’s: “Now is the starting point for everything” and “I am uniquely situated and must be willing to give history an unprecedented turn.”
As the forum neared conclusion, attendees were invited to share value-creation mottoes using the Zoom chat room function. “Value creation is believing in myself and in others,” said one. Most of all, exclaimed another, “value creation is an adventure!”
—Visit ikedacenter.org for the full article
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