At the Adam Smith Institute, we advocate for ideas that will make the world a freer, better, richer place. We aim to be radical and reasonable – pushing for bold reforms but backing it up with cold, hard evidence.
In that spirit, we're hosting our fourth Forum. We're bringing together leading thinkers for a day of talks on the underappreciated, underrecognised ideas they believe help explain and improve the world around us.
We're keeping the talks short (most won't go on for longer than 15 minutes) so we can squeeze as many great ideas as possible into the day. We'll also have our Forum bookstore which will be selling the speakers' latest publications!
Bulk discounts are available for school and university groups - contact events@adamsmith.org for more information.
We'll also be heading for drinks afterwards to give you a chance to have a chat with some of our speakers and fellow attendees. The location for post-Forum drinks will be announced closer to the event.
Speakers:
Anthony Breach (Analyst, Centre for Cities) on ‘Homes on the Right Track – How Green Belt reform can solve the housing crisis and save our environment’
Sam Bowman (Principal at Fingleton Associates and Senior Fellow at the Adam Smith Institute) on 'The Most Important Tax Cut You’ve Never Heard Of'
Sophie Sandor (Documentary filmmaker) on ‘Education and The State’
Oliver Walker-Jones (Head of Communications, Lilium) on ‘Dude, where's my flying car?’
Refugee Action on 'Lift the Ban: why people seeking asylum should have the right to work'
Silkie Carlo (Director, Big Brother Watch) on 'Why We Must Fight the Surveillance State'
Rob Wiblin (Director of Research, 80,000 Hours) on 'The Case in Favour of Political Correctness'
Anonymous Mugwump (Blogger) on 'Should we be allies with autocracies?'
Dr Ashley Frawley (Senior lecturer in Sociology and Social Policy, Swansea University) on ‘Why are governments so interested in emotion?’
Tom Chivers (Science Writer) on ‘If a Statistic Is Interesting, It’s Probably Not True’
David King (Senior Researcher, Conservative Drug Policy Reform Group) on ‘The Science and Legal Status of Psilocybin’
Daniel Pryor (Head of Programmes, Adam Smith Institute) on ‘Politics is the Mind-Killer’
Where?
The Comedy Store, 1a Oxendon St, London SW1Y 4EE
The nearest tube station is Piccadilly Circus (Piccadilly and Bakerloo Lines)
When?
10:00am to 5pm, Saturday December 7th 2019
Schedule
Registration for Forum will begin at 9:30am at the entrance of The Comedy Store (downstairs once you've entered the building). We are aiming to have everyone seated at 10:00am for our first talk of the day.
To speed things up, it'd be great if everyone could bring either a print-out of their ticket or have it ready and open on their phone. Once, we've seen that we'll hand over a beautiful Adam Smith Institute lanyard and a programme.
Tea, Coffee and Lunch
There will be two tea and coffee breaks served in The Comedy Store itself. We will also have a longer lunch break. The area surrounding The Comedy Store is full of amazing places to eat and attendees are expected to make their own lunch arrangements.
Q&As
At the end of each session we'll be running a Q & A session with the speakers on stage at a time. In order to get as many questions in as possible and to avoid the usual long-winded speeches disguised as questions, we're going to run the Q & A through Twitter. Simply tweet your question along with the #ASIForum.
There is public WiFi access at The Comedy Store, the password will be given out on the day.
Refunds
Unfortunately, we are unable to provide any refunds.
Schedule
9:30-10:00: Arrival and registration
10:00-10:10: Introductory remarks
10:10-11:30: Session One + Q & A
11:30-11:50 : Break for tea and coffee
11:50-12:20: Session Two + Q & A
12:20-13:20: Lunch break (not provided)
13:20-15:00: Session Three + Q & A
15:00-15:20: Break for tea and coffee
15:20-16:40: Session Four + Q & A
16:40-17:00: Closing remarks
Tickets
We want to reach as many students and young people as possible, so we're offering discounted tickets for under-30s. If you do take advantage of a discounted rate you may be asked to prove your identity at the door so please do bring along ID on the day!