International Design Conference in Aspen: The First Decade

Founded in 1950 by Chicago businessman Walter Paepcke, the Aspen Institute promotes the pursuit of common ground and deeper understanding in a nonpartisan and non-ideological setting through regular seminars, policy programs, conferences, and leadership development initiatives. The institute's annual International Design Conference in Aspen was launched in 1949 in a then obscure former silver-mining town west of Denver, Colorado. Paepcke sought a forum "where the human spirit can flourish", with the goal to bring designers and business leaders together to foster understanding of what design could accomplish. With strong New Bahuas ties, Paepcke hoped that the conference would help business leaders recapture what he called "eternal verities": the values that guided them intellectually, ethically, and spiritually as they led their companies. This film was shot by Container Corporation employee, Rhodes Patterson, and looks back at the first ten years of the conference.