INTRODUCING KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

IEC ONLINE

May 27-31, 2020

Online 2020 will be a new and creative way to connect with potentially hundreds of integralists from around the world for an amazing 4 days in the online space.

We intend to have as much meaningful exchange, sharing, and learning, along with connectedness and fun, as possible from our homes during the coronavirus times, and create an atmosphere of relaxedness, openness, curiosity, and playfulness in this collective meaning-making.

Check out below the keynote speaker line-up for IEC Online! Already over 60+ presenters confirmed, and here you can learn more about who the keynote speakers are to take the online stage primetime.

Ken Wilber

Integral Healthcare in a Dangerous Time

Ken Wilber is often mentioned as the Einstein of consciousness studies, and one of the most important philosophers in the world today.

He is the originator of the world’s first truly comprehensive or integrative philosophy, aptly named “Integral Theory.” As Wilber himself puts it: “I’d like to think of it as one of the first believable world philosophies” — something that is becoming increasingly necessary in order to navigate and thrive in today’s world.

At a period like the world pandemic we are now undergoing it is easy to reductionistically focus on just the upper-right quadrant (our individual objective being), and ignore the other quadrants (our subjective, cultural, and social realities). This presentation is a brief overview and summary of a more Integral—and much more effective—approach to our healthcare and wellbeing.

Dr. Daniel Brown

Post-formal Stages of Cognitive Development from the Perspective of Tibetan Great Completion Meditation

Daniel Brown, Ph.D. is Associate Clinical Professor of Psychology at Harvard Medical School and has served on the faculty for over 38 years.

A senior meditation master, Dr. Daniel Brown has trained and taught with top Indo-Tibetan Bon & Buddhist lamas for more than 48 years, including lineage holders from some of the great schools of Buddhism. Author of 24 books, and as an expert legal witness, Dr. Brown has testified in over 200 child abuse cases.

He studied Patanjali’s Yogasutras and its commentaries in the original Sanskrit with the great historian of religion, Mircea Eliade and as a direct meditation practice with Dr. Arwind Vasavada. He studied Burmese mindfulness meditation in Burma with its originator, Mahasi Sayadaw and other masters like Tungpalu Sayadaw and Acchan Cha.

He also studied Indo-Tibetan concentration and insight meditation with the root teacher, Geshe Wangyal, and then with Denmo Loncho Rinpoche and Yeshe Tapgyay, and learned Mahamudra meditation from numerous Tibetan lamas. He spent 46 years translating meditation texts from Tibetan and Sanskrit.

In his spectrum model Ken Wilber mapped out seven levels of post-formal cognitive development. Testing this spectrum model has been limited by finding a sufficient number of Western subjects that operate out of these higher levels of cognitive development. Great Completion Tibetan meditation offers detailed descriptions of each of these stages.

Bence Ganti

Keynote (Opening speech):

Organizing Integral for a Collective Transformation

Bence Ganti M.A., integral psychologist, international teacher of integral psychology. Integral European Conferences (IEC) and Integral Academy founder and director. A dual citizen of USA and Hungary, gives keynote addresses, presentations, and workshops worldwide, including Integral Flow Groups. He thought in San Francisco Mexico, Hungary, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Greece, Russia, Africa and other countries.

Frederic Laloux

Keynote:

A teal perspective on coronavirus in times of climate emergency

Belgian author, former associate partner with McKinsey & Company. Laloux holds an MBA from INSEAD, and a degree in coaching from Newfield Network in Boulder, Colorado. He moved from Brussels with his young family to join an ecovillage in upstate New York. Laloux has travelled widely and speaks five languages.

Otto Scharmer

Keynote:

Covid, Climate, and Consciousness: How to Reimagine Our Civilization

In 2015, Otto Scharmer co-founded the MITx u.lab, a massive open online course (MOOC) for leading profound change, which has since activated a global eco-system of societal and personal renewal involving more than 140,000 users from 185 countries.

In 2019, he launched an annual innovation infrastructure called Societal Transformation Lab that supports place-based teams on reinventing economies, advancing democracies and regenerating learning and leadership systems worldwide.

Dr. Otto Scharmer is a Senior Lecturer at MIT, co-founder of the Presencing Institute and the MITx u.lab (140,000 users in 185 countries). He introduced the concept “presencing” in his bestselling books Theory U, & The Essentials of Theory U. He is co-author of Leading from the Emerging Future. He is a member of the World Future Council, a recipient of the MIT-Jamieson Prize for Teaching Excellence & the European Leonardo Corporate Learning Award.

Vivian Dittmar

Keynote:

The Evolution of Feelings in times of crisis

Vivian offers clear distinctions about feelings and explains why they matter. She addresses challenging feelings and how they can evolve from destructive forces to life-affirming powers.

The subject of feelings and emotions has long been a blind spot, be it in philosophy, spirituality or even psychology. However, in the past decades, the rapid advances in neuro-science and AI-research have revealed feelings to be an integral part of human intelligence, inseparable from our cognitive processes.

Vivian Dittmar, renowned expert on emotional intelligence and author of „The Power of Feelings”, presents an evolutionary perspective on the subject. She offers clear distinctions between various phenomena we commonly call feelings and explains why it’s important to discern them. She further highlights the relevance of challenging feelings such as anger, fear or sadness and reveals how these can evolve from destructive forces to positive, life-affirming powers.

Vivian Dittmar is a passionate explorer of consciousness and culture since a very young age. Born in Germany, Vivian grew up in Europe, Asia and North America. She founded the non-profit Be the Change Foundation and is a consultant at the Terra Institute. As the author of „The Power of Feelings” and six other books, she has become a sought after expert and keynote speaker on the subject of emotional intelligence. Her latest book – Your Inner GPS – explores the subject of transrational thought.

Dr. Mariana Bozesan

Keynote:

Job Creation through Sustainable Investing Using Human-Centered AI: An Integral Approach

Dr. Mariana Bozesan is an integral (impact) investor, serial entrepreneur, published author, and academic researcher. She has earned an outstanding track record as the leading authority on integral investing and the Theta Model for de-risking that she developed based on Ken Wilber’s integral theory. Through that, she provides the transformational framework for implementing the UN SDGs within Planetary Boundaries in early stage investing by integrating financial, ecological, social, cultural, behavioral, and human consciousness factors with beauty, and joy.

Mariana is full member of the international Club of Rome and fellow in the World Academy of Art and Science (WAAS). She was named European’s Female Angel Investor of 2019 by BAND & BEA and Entrepreneur of the Year 2017 by the European Business Angels Network (EBAN). She is a philanthropist, a former G8/G20 National Advisory Board Member for the international Social Impact Investment Task Force, and a strategic advisor on integral finance and sustainability to various funds, governmental organizations, businesses, and NGOs.

Moreover, she is a prominent keynote speaker and an inspiring lecturer on the future of investing, business, finance, and economics at prestigious organizations including Stanford University, INSEAD, Oxford University, TEDx, and RIO+20. Mariana is founder of several companies including AQAL Capital, a family office, AQAL AG, and AQAL Foundation. Educated at Stanford University and KIT (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology), Dr. Bozesan earned a Master of Science degree (Dipl.-Inform.) in Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science from KIT and a Ph.D. in Psychology.

Hanzi Freinacht

Keynote:

Metamodernism – Friend or Foe to Integral?

Hanzi Freinacht, philosopher of metamodernism, is born at the crossroads of fact and fiction, part scholar, part guru, part joker, part revolutionary activist, part calm reformist. He lives and breathes between and beyond the disciplines, a thousand voices crisscrossing in his mind, oscillating between tormented confusion and blissful clarity.

Hanzi leaves his refuge in the Alps to share his sincerely-ironically held open conspiracy against modernity.

Rica Viljoen

Keynote:

Integral in Africa: Africa through Spiral Dynamics

We’re pDr. Rica Viljoen reflects on how various Spiral Dynamics codes manifest in Africa, during this keynote address. Specific emphasis is placed on conceptualising the forgotten spiral dynamics code: Beige, and how it manifests in this continent. It is argued that without integrating Beige, humanity cannot become second tier. Further, a unique celebration of Purple is presented.

This Code is uniquely positioned as the key to humanity. Red, is repositioned as a positive and important niche that enables Jungian Individuation. A colorful exploration of how Blue, Orange, and Green come together to weave diversity of thought in the oldest continent, follows.

Ultimately, dr Viljoen will reason that second-tier thinking is alive and well in Africa and that just maybe the world can remember deep wisdom from African ontology and philosophy in an attempt to embrace Yellow and Turquoise. During the conversation the following six crucial features to be focused on: • The law of the Spiral • Multiple Intelligences • Integrative Structures • The Power of the Paradox • The rule of SOME • Synergistic/Value Management. Unique reflections of the first Integral African Conference, held in 2019, will also be shared.

The next sister conference of the Integral European Conference is planned for 2020. In the worlds of Jung: “if father Europe and mother Africa unite, the divine child called transformation is born.” An attempt will be made to showcase the age-old soul of diverse Africa.

Rica developed the Benchmark of Engagement (BeQ), a tool that describes the human energy in systems to perform, that was administered in more than 50 countries. In 2017 Rica has been awarded the CEO award for her contribution to the field of study nationally and internationally by the Institute of Personal Management (IBP) for which she also acted as ambassador. She is a board member of the South African Board of People Practices. She is a world renowned facilitator and author.

Brian Robertson

Keynote:

Holacracy®: Encoding Teal into your Organizations

Reports about the state of the modern workplace reveal the management hierarchy’s failure to unleash the potential of the people working within it. An overwhelming number of employees feel disengaged, disempowered, and disconnected from both colleagues and their organization’s purpose. The efforts of even the most enlightened leaders are all too often hampered by the constraints of the outdated system in which they operate.

How, then, can forward-thinking leaders fundamentally resolve the systemic issues that limit their organization’s potential? Teal principles and practices hold promise, but many organizations aspiring to “go Teal” struggle with the gridlock that can plague flat management or consensus-driven decision-making. Brian Robertson, the founder of HolacracyOne, offers an inside look at Holacracy – a practical, customizable framework for self-organizing.

In Holacracy-powered companies, every team member gains a voice in evolving the structure and workflow of their team. In addition, each individual holds real authority to act as the “CEO of their role,” making meaningful decisions without battling politics or power games. Today, over 1,000 companies around the world are using Holacracy to make Teal principles a reality within their organizations.

Brian Robertson is the world’s foremost expert on Holacracy, a revolutionary framework for self-managing organizations. After years as CEO of an award-winning software company, he co-founded HolacracyOne to share this innovative method with other organizations.

Roger Walsh

Keynote:

Contributing Effectively in Times of Crisis

The enormity of human suffering at this time and all times calls us to help. But what really helps in times of crisis? This presentation will offer principles, practices, and meditations to help us find out optimal and integral contributions.

Roger Walsh MD., Ph.D. DHL is a professor of psychiatry, philosophy, & anthropology at the University of California. He researches meditation practices, capacities such as love and wisdom, and our contemporary global challenges, and his work has received over twenty national and international awards. He was formerly a circus acrobat, world-record high diver, and unsuccessful standup comedian. See www.drrogerwalsh.com

Terry Patten

Keynote:

Going Sane in a World Gone Mad: The ILP of Now

We’ve grown and practiced for decades to prepare for this moment. And yet it’s beyond any simple understanding & thus seems to outflank all preparation.

How can we “be the change” we want to see when hyper-complexification introduces chaos, stressing our own psychospiritual stability?

What is happening? A few quick formulae:

Pandemic —> Disruption —> Recession/Depression

Context: Ecological Predicament —> Extreme Weather Ahead —> Severe Constraints on Systemic Resilience

Psycho-Cultural & Political Reactions —> Myriad Chaotic “Good”-and-“Bad” Cascades

Terry Patten co-wrote the book Integral Life Practice and has taught ILP to over 1000 people. He recently authored A New Republic of the Heart. He founded and leads Bay Area Integral. He also created “Beyond Awakening”. Earlier he founded Tools For Exploration, an early consciousness technologies company. Currently, he’s involved in restorative redwood forestry and fossil-fuel alternatives, and leads a social experiment uniting Inner, Outer and Inter(personal) Work for social transformation.

Gail Hochachka

Keynote:

Realizing synergies for transformative change

As the world continues to breach planetary boundaries, there is an increasing recognition of the need for transformative change. Yet, interpretations of ‘transformation’ are ambiguous and varied, and certain important lenses continue to be left out.

Transformations in sustainability have been largely confined to the domain of ‘systems’ science which focus on the means of transformation but tends to underplay other perspectives, such as a normative-lens of justice and ethics and an interiority-lens of meaning-making and experience—domains that pertain to the manner by which transformation is wrought out.

Here, I propose a meta-theory of transformative change that unites the systems-lens of transitions and technologies and the practice-lens of habits and behaviors, with a normative–lens of justice and ethics and an interiority-lens of meaning-making and experience. I then use it to make sense of the COVID19 transformation and to draw out lessons for global sustainability.

Gail Hochachka currently based at UBC as a visiting scholar in the Social-Ecological Systems Research Group in the Department of Forestry, and is also a doctoral fellow at the Department of Sociology and Human Geography at the University of Oslo, doing research on the human dimensions of climate change adaptation and transformations to sustainability. She co-founded Integral Without Borders Institute, and has taught at the graduate level at John F. Kennedy University. Gail’s enduring interest is on how to better understand and integrate the human dimensions of global environmental change in a more comprehensive, integral approach.