Saturday 30 October, 10.30am until 5.00pm, Lower level exhibition space
Come and have a coffee while browsing a range of stalls promoting ideas to get you thinking and talking – with Big Potatoes, WORLDbytes, Manifesto Club, Academy of Ideas and more.
The London Manifesto for Innovation is a contribution to improving the climate for innovation globally, authored by Norman Lewis, Nico Macdonald, Alan Patrick, Martyn Perks, Mitchell Sava and James Woudhuysen.
It is the belief of the BIG POTATOES authors that innovation and a culture that can nurture innovation needs something of a rebirth. We note how the elevation of the precautionary principle in science, the short-termist financialisation of business culture and the hostility that now exists to open-ended experimentation means, in effect, that our society has lost faith in progress through science, technology and human ingenuity.
This is why we came together to develop BIG POTATOES. We aim to provoke a debate that can challenge our contemporary culture of limits. We want to think the unthinkable, explore the unfathomable, question everything in the spirit of nurturing unexpected outcomes and place human endeavour back at the centre of the universe. Join us and help grow BIG POTATOES!
A unique online Citizen TV channel set up and run by the education charity WORLDwrite. Dedicated to challenging the status quo and advancing new knowledge, the charity promotes excellence in citizen reporting and provides free film training to volunteers to make this possible. Covering the ideas and stories rarely told, without the constraints of commissioners’ whims, mainstream ratings wars or fear of upsetting conventional wisdom, WORLDbytes’ motto is ‘Don’t shout at the telly, change the message on it’.
We cover a huge range of issues but as an education charity committed to international understanding and global equality we do have some basic principles that we promote on our news channel WORLDbytes. We believe in:
To find out how to get involved please click here or come and meet us at the Ideas Factory.
The Manifesto Club campaigns against the hyperregulation of everyday life. We support free movement across borders, free expression and free association. We challenge booze bans, photo bans, vetting and speech codes - all new ways in which the state regulates everyday life on the streets, in workplaces and in our private lives.
Our rapidly growing membership hails from all political traditions and none, and from all corners of the world. Come to our stall to find out more about our new brand of civil liberties campaigning – and sign up to our flagship campaign against the vetting database.
The Academy of Ideas’ Debating Matters Competition provides an experience of engaging in rigorous, well researched and well thought through public debate to young students throughout the UK. Through establishing an environment where large numbers of schools and students benefit from the intellectual challenge posed by the Debating Matters experience, we aim to raise aspirations for educational standards more generally.
Debating Matters offers a fresh, accessible and engaging format for debating contemporary issues. With its focus on substance over style, the competition takes ideas, argument and young people seriously. One of the central tenets of Debating Matters is that young people are intelligent and robust enough to have their ideas held up to critical scrutiny. This scrutiny is provided by a panel of judges in every debate – a mixture of scientists, journalists, lawyers, businessmen, policy advisors and artists. Debating Matters judges are encouraged to be bold and to challenge the students: asking probing questions and providing honest criticism of their arguments. It is this essential interaction between students and our judges which makes Debating Matters unique.
Come and talk to us about getting involved – whether as a school, judge or a sponsor – and help us to extend the Debating Matters challenge to more young people.
The Battle of Ideas weekend is the annual culmination of the Academy of Ideas’ ongoing project. The IoI runs a range of forums that meet monthly to discuss developments in: education, the economy, social policy, current affairs, parenting, the arts, and academia; as well as a monthly book club, a national schools debating competition (www.debatingmatters.com), and other public events. We also produce occasional publications and an award-winning online reviews magazine (www.culturewars.org.uk). IoI associates get a significant reduction on ticket prices for our events as well as other benefits. Most importantly, associates help us continue our work in expanding the boundaries of public debate.
For more information about the Academy of Ideas, contact Geoff Kidder on 020 7269 9220 or see further details here.
