After the resounding success of his book, "Du Bonheur et des Idees", Farid Chehab, Honourary Chairman of Leo Burnett MENA, launched the book in English under the name, "Of Happiness and Ideas." In honour of this occasion, a roundtable discussion under the theme "An Idea for Lebanon", was held at the American University of Beirut (AUB).
AUB President Dr. Fadlo R. Khuri chaired the discussion and talked about AUB’s vision to prepare Lebanon young generation to face the 21st century. “This is a period where we can see a change, how young people are thinking about their own futures, thus we have to create economical and educational opportunities”.
The event was moderated by former Minister Tarek Mitri, and it took place with the participation of the industrialist and public figure Fouad Makhzoumi, who presented the idea of “Dialogue of Alphabets” with the objective of improving and enhancing Lebanon’s image in the world, through a unique global art contest using Alphabets of the world; Raja Trad, CEO of Publicis Groupe MEA, who, among other ideas, proposed the one of creating a new ministry, Ministry of Creativity whose prime objective would be to turn the Lebanese creativity into an effective increased national wealth contributing to retain Lebanese creative talents; Green Party leader Nada Zaarour, developed the Lebanese Climate Act idea and its consequences for Lebanon’s environment especially for forestation and water and here she raised the example of the Blue Gold five-year plan, a constructive idea for Lebanon’s water wealth optimisation, developed in the second half of Chehab’s book; and also Marianne Hoayek, Executive Director of the Executive Office, BDL who presented the accelerated initiative for helping startups in Lebanon.
The event was also attended the choreographer and artist Alissar Caracalla, who spoke about the idea of having an Opera House in Beirut.
And to close this very interesting panel, the young successful entrepreneur Ayad Nasser came out with a brilliant idea of promoting Lebanese participative collaboration around Traffic Security; his idea also included using an app where every citizen can post unethical drivers behaviour putting citizens in danger.
Chehab shed light on the close link between the interaction of creative ideas and productivity, believing that creative and productive ideas are the true path to happiness. He highlighted many real world examples related to creative work, such as those produced by the Leo Burnett agency. He also commented about other ideas that have been created outside the world of advertising and marketing, such as the Lebanese water project “Blue Gold”.