'Thought leaders' share ideas at Sundance Film Festival

PARK CITY — Sundance attracts many crowds. The film crowds, of course. The music crowds. The celebrity-watching crowds. The crowds that like to look at graffiti.

How about the thought-leader crowds?

Dozens of the nation's best-known thinkers, motivators, connectors and innovators assembled at the St. Regis Hotel in Deer Valley Friday and Saturday for the 2010 Thought Leaders Summit at Sundance.

Invited guests included such self-improvement and leadership giants as Harvey Mackay, author of "Swim With the Sharks Without Getting Eaten Alive;" Bill Bartmann, a two-time National Entrepreneur of the Year; Laura Day, bestselling author and business consultant; Paul Zane Pilzer, economist and author of "The Wellness Revolution;" Randy Garn, founding partner of ProsperCorp; Jeff Black, founder of hotels.com; and Kevin Hall, noted speaker and author of "Aspire."

Utah Gov. Gary Herbert spoke to the group at a seminar breakfast on Saturday and Utah native Dr. Stephen R. Covey, author of "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" and numerous other bestselling books on leadership, gave the keynote speech at lunch.

Covey's remarks centered on the need for leaders to shift from the "formal authority" that ruled the industrial age to the "moral authority" that will be the hallmark of great leaders in the information age.

He stressed that today's leaders will find far greater results by helping those they lead to find their unique voice instead of treating people as "things."

"Create complementary teams," Covey advised. "Build on strengths and make weaknesses irrelevant."

Because it is, after all, Sundance, Covey also included as part of his presentation a short film on leadership.

Dom Sagolla, a co-creator of Twitter, talked about his new book "140 Characters," and urged those in attendance to visit The Tweet House, Twitter's Sundance headquarters, on Park City's Main Street, and to use their Twitter accounts to donate for Haiti earthquake relief.

Actor LeVar Burton is co-host of The Celebrity Tweetup for Haiti. To donate or to learn more, go to www.tweetforhaiti.org.

"We've found that Twitter is great for expressing your thoughts," said Sagolla. "We've also found that it's great for donating lots of money real fast."

e-mail: lee@desnews.com