The first day of the Hancock Symposium at Westminster College featured several speakers on a variety of topics.
Wednesday's first session was with Tyler Merritt, vice president of Platform Development with UneeQ. He spoke about the developing field of virtual reality and "digital humans." His speech centered around the idea of five laws for ethical digital human design, while also showcasing the capabilities of virtual reality.
James Baker also spoke Wednesday. Baker is a professor at the Syracuse College of Law and the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. He is also the director of the Syracuse University Institute for Security Policy and Law.
Baker's speech focused on isseus of national security. He said in his speech the current generation is facing the most daunting set of security challenges. Baker gave five security challenges he feels are the most critical. The challenges he said were the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a rising China that is challenging America, climate change, increased domestic extremism and falsehoods being shared on social media.
After his speech, Baker did a question and answer segment with the guests in attendance. He answered questions about national security and his views on the war in Ukraine.
Later in the day, Katie Sowers spoke at the symposium. Sowers was the first female and openly gay person to coach for a Super Bowl team. She was the offensive assistant for the San Francisco 49ers when they lost to the Kansas City Chiefs at Super Bowl LIV.
Sowers gave advice for college students and talked about the importance of mental health. She gave five pieces of advice to students that she feels are important to remember -- confront the reality that the enemy of equality is truly our own conscious and unconscious bias, in a change world your attitude will be the difference, hatred will not cure ignorance, the score will take care of itself and error on love.
Sowers did a question and answer segment where students asked her questions about her coaching career and her views on football.
Wednesday culminated in "An Evening with Nick Cave." Cave is an artist based out of Chicago, but he is from Fulton.
Cave is best known for his "soundsuits," which are costumes that cover a person's body. Cave said these hide all identifiable aspects of an individual and allow for an unbiased viewing experience.
Cave spoke with moderator Kenny Greene, an artist from Columbia. They discussed Cave's process in creating art, and about the history of soundsuits.