“Imagining” a Better Future for Humanity

Moody College partnered with MICA - The School of Ideas to host the 7th Annual International Communication Management Conference (ICMC). This year's theme was "Creativity and Culture for Management in a Changing World."

The global conference was held virtually on January 7-9, 2021. The list of distinguished speakers included professors, entrepreneurs, and business leaders from around the world. 

Moody College Dean, Jay Bernhardt, gave the keynote address at the conference. During his keynote, Dean Bernhardt discussed the challenges the world faced in 2020 including 1.8M deaths due to coronavirus, economic crises, climate change, political divisions, and racial and social justice incidents and protests. He also noted the many innovations that came from 2020 including a shift towards working from home, greater use of video conferencing, accelerated online-learning, and increased online shopping. 

Dean Bernhardt went on to discuss the future of work and AI, "As manufacturing, and then service, and then IT jobs are changed or displaced by AI and Automation, our society will (hopefully) evolve from an “Information Economy” to an “Imagination Economy.” He predicted that in this new imagination economy, humans will focus on what we still do better than AI: imagination, innovation, creativity, art, emotion, and relationships. While this future of work presents many opportunities, it also presents challenges including increased data monitoring, continuous media "noise", and more opportunities for misinformation. 

The Dean concluded his keynote by addressing ways in which academia should prepare students, and future workers, for the imagination economy. He placed emphasis on areas of learning such as critical thinking, problem-solving, creativity, entrepreneurship, collaboration, media literacy, and multi-cultural communication. 

About MICA

MICA - The School of Ideas is an autonomous, non-profit institution in Gujarat, India. The school offers various academic programs in areas such as strategic marketing and communication. MICA's mission is to develop creative and adaptive students who can solve problems in a rapidly changing world. To learn more about MICA, please visit https://www.mica.ac.in/ 

About ICMC

This year marks the seventh International Communication Management Conference (ICMC). The conference highlights creative and cultural industries around the globe. Featured conference events include industry-led talks, business leaders panels, and teach-in sessions with experts. The goal of ICMC is to gain insights into emerging trends, ideas, practices, and approaches towards building a more equal and empathetic tomorrow. For more information regarding ICMC, please visit https://www.mica.ac.in/icmc/icmc-2021