Experience Stern | News & Events

Above: Michael Laiskonis, creative director at the Institute of Culinary Education, spoke at Stern as part of the Second Annual Conference on Creative Industries.

On July 31-August 2, the NYU Stern School of Business co-hosted the Second Annual Conference on Creative Industries with Columbia Business School and the Yale School of Management. The conference was co-organized by Professors Gino Cattani, Amandine Ody-Brasier (Yale) and Damon Phillips (Columbia). The conference featured five empirical paper sessions and covered a variety of creative industries (e.g., film-making, restaurants, art, music, etc.).  

The three-day event also included discussions led by Michael Laiskonis, creative director at the Institute of Culinary Education, and musical artist Chris Washburne. Laiskonis spoke about the importance of laying strong foundations within creative fields to better facilitate innovation, while Washburne highlighted the value of history, experimentation and a "play, not work" mindset within the jazz genre, in particular.

"Every creation is about constructing and deconstructing, linking things together,” said Laiskonis. “There is a lot of thought that goes into it, a lot of intention.”


Above: Musical artist Chris Washburne performed at the Second Annual Conference on Creative Industries at Stern.