Last Monday I organized a gathering of smart individuals at my place. To broaden my horizons, I mostly invited people I did not know. I asked four of the guests to speak for a few minutes about something (non promotional and non partisan) that was on their minds of late.

Shelly Palmer who heads Digital Life with Shelly Palmer and wrote the jingle for Meow Mix spoke on the state of the union of digital media.

His speech was followed by a brief questions and answer session.

Mara Mourao, the award-winning Brazilian filmmaker of Doutores de Alegria spoke about her upcoming movie on social entrepreneurship: Who Cares?

Matthew Bishop the US Bureau Chief of the Economist first spoke about the consequence of giving First Amendment rights to corporations and later spoke about his new book The Road from Ruin.

My good friend Niro Anandasabapathy who is an MD PhD trained in immunology and cancer biology, now working in translational medicine at Rockefeller University, explained why we don’t have an HIV vaccine yet.