After a morning walk through the microcentro (downtown Buenos Aires) with a beautiful sunrise backdrop and numerous photos taken with the Buenos Aires obelisk, the participants of SABF 2023 arrived at the venue for Day 2 of the event, still half-asleep.
Reflecting on the discussions from Day 1, the students had the opportunity to delve deeper into the debates and explore their positions through activities in small groups. The SABF Blog's team of journalists remained on duty in the Financial District of Buenos Aires to report the latest news and updates.
Student Presentations
Six students, selected for standing out in their opinion essays, were invited to kick off the day by presenting their ideas. Conversations were generated to exchange perspectives.
Elliott Mokski, a French student, talked about his work at Harvard. Moderated by Kamila Ciok, in his presentation, he discussed his development of algorithms operating with Open AI to measure attributes in texts. For example, evaluating how positive public speeches are.
Beatriz Tenório De Oliveira, from Brazil, spoke about the positive and negative aspects of borders. She discussed what would happen if the world were governed by a single global power. Moderated by Daniel Leslie.
How do you think a world without borders would feel? Would you like to live in it?
Rocío Vergara Zurita, from Chile, gave a presentation on human singularity. Moderated by Emiliano Domínguez, the presentation was very emotional and made us reflect on our inner child.
Simón Volpato asked the audience what makes humans human. He concluded that experiences and stories are what make the species unique. His presentation was moderated by Diego Luzuriaga.
If society woke up one day and forgot its experiences, what would its identity be? None.
Alejandra Barredo, from Spain, made us imagine a dystopia where a state controls all its citizens. Isn't it analogous to what we experience on social media? Moderated by Esther Rizo, it was questioned whether, because it is not as blatant as in authoritarian regimes, the citizens of the West are not aware that the degree of control being exerted is the same.
Brendan Frizzell, from the United States, spoke about the situation at the border between El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juárez. For him, physical, political, and interpersonal borders leave different marks. The talk was moderated by Rob Britton and Rick Dow.
Interactive Classes
The fueling stations of the South American Business Forum (the coffee machines) took a well-deserved break as the re-energized crowd moved on to attend the interactive classes of the speakers, where many of the ideas presented on day 1 were delved into.
Dalia Mogahed participated on day 2 with her workshop "Critical Consumption in the Media: Islamophobia as a Case Study." She talked about how the Muslim community is represented in the media and opened the discussion about specific headlines to encourage everyone to be critical of their tribal prejudices.
Emiliano Domínguez, on the other hand, engaged with the audience on the concept of what a border is. In his workshop, titled "At the Edge: Borders in the 21st Century," he questioned whether old definitions still hold true in the new century and concluded with a collective definition of borders.
Diego Luzuriaga proposed a space for exchange and entrepreneurship related to artificial intelligence in a workshop titled "Artificial Intelligence and Collective Applied to Disruptive Entrepreneurship." In small groups, the participants devised entrepreneurial solutions to address the issue of mistrust in electoral results.
Mark Giltrow is a specialist in corporate psychology. In his presentation, "Cooperation Without Borders," he talked about the methods that NGOs can use to develop their vision and harness the skills of their members.
Federico Filip spoke about how to generate innovation: it is something that can be practiced. In his workshop, titled "Activating the Skill of the Future," he provided a space to develop creativity, which he considers a crucial skill for the future.
Finally, Daniel Leslie returned on day 2 of SABF to discuss privacy with the participants. In his talk, "Curing Our Digital Identity," he spoke about privacy management, data monetization, and the possibility of erasing the digital footprint we leave behind in the digital world.
Spectrum
Spectrum is an activity format that invites for deep debate and reflection on our stances. Participants, divided into small groups, must position themselves along a line of 7 opinions (ranging from completely disagreeing to completely agreeing) based on their views on certain statements.
The debate was heated and disagreement was the norm. Speakers and guests also joined the discussion. Some of the statements discussed were:
- The abolition of all borders is the best option to achieve true global unity.
- Ethics and profitability are mutually exclusive concepts.
- Government agencies should only have limited access to citizens' personal data to protect their privacy.
- I would feel safer being diagnosed by artificial intelligence than by a doctor if it can guarantee greater accuracy.
To the reader: what do you think about these statements? In which line would you stand?
Mentorship
The day concluded with mentoring sessions in small groups. The mentors were Daniel Leslie (Managing Partner at Reflexions), Lucas Díaz (Co-founder of Mudafy), Dalia Mogahed (Research Director at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding), Federico Filip (Innovation, Disruption, and Leadership Training), Esther Rizo (Strategic Design Consultant), Rick Dow (Principal at The DOJO Group), Susan Giuliano (Lawyer and HR Consultant), Rob Britton (Director of Airlearn), Marc Bertogliati (Sales Director for Europe, Middle East, and Africa at Mastercard), Mark Giltrow (Professor at the British Columbia Institute of Technology), Diego Luzuriaga (CEO of Alchemit), Cecilia Smoglie (Director of the Master's degree in Energy and Environment at ITBA), and Kamila Ciok (CEO of Organización Alimuradova).
Tired after a long day and with much to ponder, the participants headed back to the hotel.
Reported by the SABF Blog's field journalism apparatus.
