Cultural Dimplomacy Conference

A couple of things were impressed on me at the conference last week. The first was, obviously, the importance of cultural diplomacy and cultural awareness. The second however is a kind of negative, so I want to put out a disclaimer: I really liked the conference and thought a lot of important things were brought up. Anyways, I was struck by the lack of depth of content on the part of some individuals. Allow me to explain what I'm trying to say. For example, one woman (I believe she was the wife of the U.S. ambassador to Russia) spent a solid ten minutes talking about everything her embassy had done; to be more precise, all the money they had invested in so-called "cultural diplomacy". During the break, a man standing nearby was talking to me about the panel thus far. When I brought up what this woman had talked about, he told something along the lines of "she's a heavyweight of diplomacy, you should really listen to what she says". This sort of surprised me. I guess what I'm trying to get at is this: I feel like a lot of adults think their title should speak for them. In the world of diplomacy, this sort of mentality will not suffice. In any career you should have the knowledge to back up your title. I think this is especially important in international relations.