InForum series educates about innovative ideas

By Kristen Coachman
The Collegian

Completing its lecture series focusing on innovative ideas, the new Valley InForum series will showcase its final speaker Tuesday.

“The New Valley InForum was launched several years ago in an effort to introduce the community to prominent people at the cutting edge of innovative ideas,” Director of the Lyles Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Timothy Stearns said.

Stearns said the Lyles Center is a broad community effort to create and develop a more vibrant economic base and generate more high paying jobs and new businesses.

One of the goals of the InForum is to change the way the community thinks.

“A key requirement to make this happen is a shift in thinking in the community,” Stearns said.

Stearns said the shift in thinking is already happening, but there is still a misconception that Fresno is just an agricultural community with not much to offer as far as entertainment, career paths, and entrepreneurial start ups goes.

“The InForum with the tag line, ‘Innovative Topics for Innovative Thinkers,’ is an event that will provide people with tools for understanding how to build more innovation into the community as well as undergo this unique transformation,” Stearns said.

For students who have never attended an InForum event, Stearns said they should expect an engaging event with interesting people hanging out.

“Students who are willing to make the effort to attend, find it very positive and interesting event. Not only does one get to hear a dynamic speaker on the cutting edge of innovative thought, but you get to hang out with several hundred innovative speakers,” Stearns said.

Stearns said people think of college students as a prime group seeking innovative knowledge, but that is not always the case.

“We also know that college students are in many ways more entrenched in their out dated view of the community. This is a result of an intense focus on campus life consisting of courses, homework, studying and entertainment,” Stearns said. “Exposure to knowledge outside of this realm requires effort. And students should be making the effort, because it is a time in their life where they should be building their intellectual thought as much as possible.”

The author of “The Soul of Money,” Lynne Twist, will be the third and final speaker at the New Valley InForum series.

Twist, who graduated from Stanford University, is an activist and fundraiser, as well as author. She received the Katalysis Foundation’s Entrepreneur of the Year award in 1996. Twist will be speaking about three myths that influence people’s minds when it comes to relating their lives to money.

The event is $10 for students to attend and will be held in downtown Fresno at the Memorial Auditorium.

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