Society of Imagination — Creative Leadership Salon N° 17

​Society is free and business can prosper to the degree both encourage imagination of difference.

There exists a tale of a bucket of crabs. It tells of a clutch of crabs contained in an open bucket. If a crab starts to climb out, it will be pulled back in by the others, ensuring the group's collective demise. Imagination of how something can be different, be it a place outside the bucket or a more livable society, can unleash tailwinds. At times it feels more acceptable to infinitely tweak existing conditions rather than daring to re-imagine them from the ground up. Yet, mere tweaking and patch-working simply reproduces the conditions that gave rise to the issues one wants to solve. We are merely tightening the Gordian knot.

​
We invite you to a conversation with Jennifer Gaspar, whose 25 years of experience in humanitarian work have centered around preventing civil societies from cracking. More recently she built her organization Araminta, which, among other programs, provides emergency support to people who dare to envision a different society and speak out under risks we hardly encounter here in this country. Jennifer came to understand how central the capacity of imagination is to keeping civil society resilient and free. Those are the very two qualities a prosperous business landscape requires in the long run as well.

Amidst increasing pressure on free societies, it feels wise to acknowledge that every single decision, whether taken by an individual or a business, is a societal decision. Thus, to paraphrase psychiatrist and neuroscientist Ian McGilchrist: imagination is a moral act.

​More about Jennifer Gaspar
Before founding Araminta, Jennifer was Director for Special Programs at the CEELI Institute in Prague, managing programs on defense attorney independence, emergency support and relocation for activists and human rights defenders, and policy initiatives benefiting international defenders. Her rich experience in NGO management, philanthropic advising, and organizational strategy spans Russia, Eastern Europe, and the Former Soviet Union. She was a long-term consultant to the Oak Foundation's International Human Rights Programme and former Director of the Fund for International Nonprofit Development (US). Jennifer serves on multiple boards including PEP Watch (Prague), the Centre for International Protection (Strasbourg), and two Berlin-based exiled human rights organizations: Free Voices Collective, e.V. and Journalisten und Anwälte für Meinungsfreiheit (JAM). She is a Fulbright Fellow in Hungary and human rights laureate of the Moscow Helsinki Group. Jennifer holds degrees in international affairs from George Washington University and a Masters in Organisational Leadership from the University of San Francisco.

Linkedin
Araminta

​Registration
Buy a ticket and share the event with people that you would like to meet. The ticket will be confirmed after an evaluation. We intend to ensure a qualified and diverse gathering of Creative Leaders.

All ticket sales are exclusively used to fund our events.

​Agenda
18:30 Opening Doors
19:15 Interview with Jennifer
19:30 Fishbowl Discussion
22:00 Closing Doors

Catering
We will keep our tradition and kindly ask you to bring a piece of cheese — we'll take care of the wine.

​Creative Leadership Salon
Since 2017, the Creative Leadership Salon has hosted conversations on shaping society and entrepreneurship. We have discussed topics ranging from technology, social entrepreneurship, education, and science to non-profit work. For us, the appeal of creativity lies in discovering possibilities beyond apparent contradictions: a company, for example, can certainly be both activist and commercially viable. And we believe they should aim to. Binary logic reaches its limits when confronted with the questions of our time.
The Creative Leadership Salon thrives on conversation—there are no screens or stages, just a special guest who shares their story as a conversation starter. From there, we follow the flow of the evening, with gentle facilitation on our part.

Website
Linkedin

​Future Salons
Sign up for our newsletter and never miss an upcoming salon.

​
FAQ

• ​Will there be a recording?
  Our salons are not recorded to ensure participants can freely express themselves without concerns about public disclosure. This approach fosters the conversations we aim to encourage — which is why we also follow the Chatham House Rule.

• ​Will there be photos?
  We take a few selected photos to document each salon for our communication. If you prefer not to appear in any photos, please let us know, and we will ensure it.

• ​Do you have discounts for students or unemployed?
  We certainly do have. If you genuinely can't afford a ticket at this moment in time, please use the discount code SUPPORT at checkout for a 50% discount.

• ​Is your question not answered here?
  Send an email to [email protected] with your question and we'll get back to you!