Ben Green of Carbondale wants to set a good example for his teenage son about speaking up for what’s right.
“He's constantly pushing me on being less apathetic,” Green said. “He’s not accepting of the premise that we should just keep our heads down and take care of ourselves.”
Green has lived in the Roaring Fork Valley for a decade and has long been skeptical of the Aspen Ideas Festival and the Aspen Institute, which runs the festival. He’s particularly concerned over whether a philanthropic organization like the Institute can effectively discuss global issues.
This year, the focus and framing of many festival sessions especially frustrated him — from BlackRock CEO Larry Fink praising AI to Gov. Jared Polis saying new data centers are necessary.
Green worries that Ideas isn’t incentivized to critique these new technologies if their attendees stand to profit from their success.
“The source of the wealth of the people attending is the problem that they are ostensibly trying to solve,” he said.
According to a BNY Wealth report released this June, 89% of people with a net worth of over $10 million are invested in AI or AI-related companies. While the wealth of attendees is not publicly available, this year, passes for the Ideas Festival ranged from $5,200 to $15,000.
The Institute has tried various ways to broaden its reach and programming perspectives over the years. But the continued high cost of entry and programming focus have left some community members questioning whether the Institute has lost touch with locals.
In late June, halfway through the six-day Ideas festival, Green and his teenage son put up fliers around the edge of the Institute grounds and throughout Aspen critiquing a panel titled, “Do Workers Matter?”
“Why is this even a question?” Green asked. In front of a grey silhouette of a worker, the flier cited phrases from the Institute’s Community Agreement, including that the Institute “is dedicated to advancing a free, just, and equitable society.”
At the bottom, he wrote: “This is how people talk when they want us to smile while they bleed us dry.”
Green said he made the posters to draw the attention not so much of Ideas itself, but of the workers who made it possible. He also hoped the physical medium would make people pause.
“You can't just click delete; you have to physically go over and take it off the thing,” He said. “Most likely, the person doing that isn't Larry Fink. … It's a worker.”
Despite its title, the “Do Workers Matter?” panel focused on how employers can better support workers. Jinhee Kim, who oversees the Institute’s public events, said the title was meant to grab people’s attention.
“We don’t want to be provocative for the sake of being provocative,” she said. “It's a marketing tool, right? How do we get people interested to come and see this session, but how does it accurately reflect [the content]?”
Kim also disagreed with Green’s assessment that the Institute is not living up to its values.
“We truly invest and adhere to the mission, which is to have dialogue, and I think we've shown the impact of dialogue,” Kim said.
In that spirit, Kim said she was open to feedback.
“We can always do better,” she said. “We sit here as a part of a community, so we want to make sure that we recognize and reflect that.”
On Facebook, Aspen Public Radio requested locals’ feedback on the festival’s relationship with the community. Dozens of commenters shared mixed feelings.
Some echoed Green’s view that its programming has lost touch with working people. Others said they enjoyed listening to broadcast or recorded panels this year, but it’s not the same as going in person. Given the cost of passes, most felt attendance wasn't accessible to locals.
For Aspen’s Tiffany Chin, the high cost of entry and programming concerns are not isolated problems. She said it reflects the changing demographics in the Roaring Fork Valley.
“I used to work for millionaires, now I work for billionaires,” she said.
Chin has attended Ideas for the past 12 years with Florida-based nonprofit the Coudert Institute. She thought some of the Ideas sessions this year were shallow and didn’t speak to working-class concerns, especially when it came to AI. Like Green, she also saw a disconnect between Ideas’ stated values and actions.
“A lot of the talks were, ‘Start with your community. Start with local community,’ and Ideas Fest does not have a local community pricing,” Chin said.
But overall, she said the Aspen Institute does a good job of interacting with locals.
“I think there's a good positive relationship there,” she said. “I think they do go out of their way, because I also do go to the community programming.”
Since 1999, the Institute has offered free or low-cost events around the Roaring Fork Valley. The Ideas festival offers à la carte ticket options for some sessions, ranging from free to $250 each. The $15,000 Patron Pass subsidizes free passes for community leaders across the country. This year was also the first time the Institute gave free passes to local leaders at agencies like fire and police departments. There has never been a discounted pass or pricing for locals, Institute staff confirmed.
Cristal Logan, vice president of Aspen Community Programs and Engagement at the Aspen Institute, acknowledged that it hasn’t always been a community-facing organization.
“We did kind of get that reputation of being closed-door,” she said.
But she said that changed with the launch of Community Programs.
“We've had Supreme Court justices, we've had former presidents,” she said. “The who’s who of who you would ever want to see in your lifetime come to these events.”
Logan said it’s a way to provide an Ideas experience for locals without the high sticker price.
Despite these efforts, Green was less focused on convincing Ideas Festival to be more accessible. He wants the ultra-wealthy, like those who attend the Ideas Festival, to better support working people, “even to their own detriment.”
Ideas staff said they hope to continue the conversation.
The next Community Programs event is during the Institute’s Security Forum next week, featuring former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and former Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker in conversation at the Greenwald Pavilion on July 14.
