"Weapons that choose own targets cause alarm", "Difference arise despite US-China deal making", "At Afghan border graft is part of the deal", "A revolt Israel is finding it difficult to tame", "In Iran deal, Russia to build nuclear power plants", "Court allows EU nationals to restrict immigrant welfare", "Law and order in Mexico", "Colombia's compromise with murder", "Freud and the Middle East", "Don't ask how to feed the 9 billion", International Luxury Conference, December 1-5 Miami. SAY WHAT??????
Amidst all the murder and mayhem, weapons with a brain and nuclear power plants an advertisement for an International Luxury Conference?
"The businesses of fashion and art--and fashion and technology, and art and technology -- have become increasingly intertwined in recent years; no longer is any industry, particularly the luxury industry, and an island. Rather, to succeed and lead, one must situate one’s business in this web of connections to other sectors over which ideas and expertise are exchanged and spread, and from which game-changing innovation and true leaders emerge.
Fashion houses draw from artists and their works both as a source of creative inspiration and product development, as well as marketing and brand positioning opportunities. Tech companies use design as a point of difference and market advantage. 21st century luxury houses use innovative and brand-enhancing technologies and interdisciplinary collaborations to powerful advantage. These sectors are increasingly concerned with the value systems that create consumer ties that bind. Success is tied to engagement, emotion, and a credible and kind value system. This conference will explore how the fields of art, fashion and technology can be utilized and maximized to enhance the unique value of luxury companies and products.
On the eve of Art Basel Miami Beach, the annual winter gathering place for the global creative industries, The New York Times International Luxury Conference will bring together over 500 business and creative leaders from the luxury sector to explore the dialogue between luxury and art and luxury and technology; key drivers for brands to position themselves within the cultural space. Within this cultural dialogue, issues of artistry, craftsmanship, exclusivity in an open world and sustainability will be discussed.
This conference is also ground zero for forging new relationships to enhance each leader’s role within the global landscape.
On behalf of the New York Times, the International New York Times, and the conference’s hosts, Deborah Needleman and Vanessa Friedman, we look forward to two days of exciting conversations between the diverse mixture of attendees - from Chief Executives to Chief Creative Officers, inventors to artists, retailers to technologists.
Registration rate $4250- Venue Mandarin Oriental"
In a world full of craziness, there are those spending thousands of dollars on luxury conferences. I don't even know where to begin or what to write.(Maybe I'm just being prejudiced) At $4250 x 500 people who will attend the conference, that is a whopping $2.1 million for registration alone. Rooms range in price from $700+ to several thousand for a suite. Just think what one could do with that type of money.
But even the rich and famous and the businesses which serve them need conferences like this to spend their money on. What else could they do with their money? Well maybe alleviate poverty, create better opportunities for equal access to education, health, and stop global warming. The list is endless.
Of course I'm a dreamer that somehow we might know when to say enough is enough, why does one need only $1 billion when one can have two or three or more? We all aspire to be Numero Uno on the Forbes richest people list. After all we must take care of our future generations, well if there are future generations, but no matter, not my concern. I only need to make money for my family and nobody else and if I can enable the rich to enjoy more luxuries, use inordinate amounts of the world's resources, then why shouldn't I get a bigger piece of the pie; nobody else will do it for me.
I know let's get a bunch of poor people to go to their local garbage dump and scavenge, well in some cases this is their only nutrition, and maybe create some art. We could then sell it at the Conference and the marketers will create a huge space for us so that the rich help some of the poor to become rich. Remember the movie "Zoolander" where the Will Farrell character who played a fashion designer created clothing out of garbage a la "Derelict"? (Use a French accent to say this). Well there we go, that would do it, make it hip to wear huge amounts of old clothing, using newspapers to keep warm, and dirtied by being homeless.
Everyone is entitled to spend their money the way in which they like. I shouldn't really be so sarcastic about a Luxury Conference, but hell isn't this a lot better then a development conference, held at a nice hotel, while the people who development is supposed to help continue to just get by?
Here's an idea, let's take the Luxury Conference out of Miami, hold it in a place like Nepal and see how the participants feel. Maybe we could do some home stays, people could look out at fields of rice, instead of the Atlantic Ocean, eat some daal bhaat with their hands instead of lobster with their nutcrackers. We could even have buffalo rides and maybe raise some money for locals. Wait cold showers only and maybe some toilets, hmm...don't know if this would work. I have a better idea let's take 500 really poor people from countries where people live on less than $1/day and let them stay at the Mandarin Oriental and other luxury hotels throughout the US. Let's give them a taste of what it means to live in luxury.
Maybe my perspective is too narrow and I'm not seeing the bigger picture in all of this. Maybe I've spent too much time living overseas and seeing people just barely squeaking by. Maybe, just maybe, I've been warped by this experience. After all doesn't everyone aspire to making zilliions of dollars or at least figuring out how to make money off of those who can afford luxury?
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