Battle of Ideas 2014
Festival overview: Saturday
Saturday sessions are listed below ordered by time slot and room. See Sunday sessions or see the whole Festival weekend of more than 70 debates.

Saturday 18 October: 9.30-9.50
Festival Attractions 2014 Free Stage
Battle of Ideas 2014 welcome address
Saturday 18 October: 10.00-11.30
Keynote Controversies Cinema 1
Why are we afraid to judge?
Legal Challenges Pit Theatre
Judge rule: is the law taking over politics?
Technological Innovation Frobisher Auditorium 2
The robots are coming: friends or foes?
Defending Everyday Liberties Frobisher 1-3
From Yid Army to Green Brigade: free speech for football fans?
Interrogating Megatrends Conservatory
Is demography destiny?
Austerity Dilemmas Garden Room
Hunger in the UK: the food banks phenomenon
Therapy Culture Cinema 3
Cotton-wool campus?
Defending Everyday Liberties Free Stage
Busking - the clash between liberty and noise pollution (with performance)
Contemporary Controversies Hammerson Room
The FGM controversy
Saturday 18 October: 12.00-13.15
Keynote Controversies Cinema 1
Hashtag feminism: radical or banal?
Saturday 18 October: 12.00-13.00
Legal Challenges Pit Theatre
‘Cinderella law’: criminalising parental authority?
Technological Innovation Frobisher Auditorium 2
Year of coding: programming kids for work?
Defending Everyday Liberties Frobisher 1-3
Computer says no? Vetting, barring and child protection revisited
Interrogating Megatrends Conservatory
Feeding the world: can we engineer away hunger?
Austerity Dilemmas Garden Room
Business bashing: should corporates ‘care’?
Eye on the World Cinema 3
In conversation: Israel
BoI 2014 Free Stage
Bookshop Barnie with Professor Rana Mitter on China’s War with Japan
Contemporary Controversies Hammerson Room
D'ya get me? Does proper English matter?
Saturday 18 October: 13.10-13.50
Festival Attractions 2014 Free Stage
Classical Music Jam
Saturday 18 October: 13.20-13.40
Special topical sessions Garden Room
Toxic on Twitter: should we clamp down on trolls?
Special topical sessions Conservatory
What should we do about Ebola?
Saturday 18 October: 13.45-15.00
Keynote Controversies Cinema 1
After Gaza: the return of anti-Semitism?
Saturday 18 October: 14.00-15.30
Legal Challenges Pit Theatre
Victims' law: therapeutic justice or moral crusade?
Technological Innovation Frobisher Auditorium 2
Forever friends? Negotiating online relationships
Defending Everyday Liberties Frobisher 1-3
From betting to minimum pricing: saving the poor from themselves?
Interrogating Megatrends Conservatory
Energy futures: how can we keep the lights on?
Austerity Dilemmas Garden Room
From Canary Wharf to China: is the bubble going to burst again?
Special topical sessions Hammerson Room
After the Scottish referendum:
what next for the Union?
Interrogating Megatrends Cinema 2
Cities in the machine age: all systems, no soul?
Therapy Culture Cinema 3
Romantic love: just an illusion?
Creative Conundrums Library
What does literacy mean today?
Saturday 18 October: 16.00-17.15
Legal Challenges Pit Theatre
Judgement by our peers: is the jury out?
Defending Everyday Liberties Frobisher 1-3
Policing the night-time economy: killing the lads’ night out?
Interrogating Megatrends Conservatory
From bullet trains to driverless cars: where is transport going?
Austerity Dilemmas Garden Room
PIGS can't fly? Surviving austerity
Contemporary Controversies Cinema 2
After the floods: can we tame the weather?
Therapy Culture Cinema 3
The trouble with boys: is masculinity in crisis?
Technological Innovation Frobisher Auditorium 2
DRIP by drip: have we given up on privacy?
Eye on the World Hammerson Room
Young Arab Voices: has the Arab Spring made us more polarised?
Creative Conundrums Free Stage
Trust me, I'm a music critic
Saturday 18 October: 17.30-18.45
Legal Challenges Pit Theatre
Community Treatment Orders: the psychiatric ASBO?
Technological Innovation Frobisher Auditorium 2
The gamification of society: time to grow up?
Defending Everyday Liberties Frobisher 1-3
Immigration: who should control our borders?
Austerity Dilemmas Garden Room
Multinationals: curse or blessing for the developing world?
Therapy Culture Frobisher 4-6
What is wrong with disciplining children?
BoI 2014 Frobisher Auditorium 1
Debating Matters Competition International Final 2014
Contemporary Controversies Hammerson Room
Balloon debate: what's the best poem ever?
Contemporary Controversies Level 1 Balcony
Fighting for freedom – the next 10 years: a working seminar for activists to discuss what next
Saturday 18 October: 18.45-21.00
Festival Attractions 2014 Conservatory
Battle of Ideas 2014 festival drinks reception
Saturday 18 October: 10.30-18.00
Festival Attractions 2014 Level G
Festival Bookshop 2014
Saturday 18 October: 17.30-19.00
Festival Attractions 2014 Advanced Box Office, Level G
Special Barbican architecture tour

Big Data, big danger?

"Five debates a day sounds a bit daunting beforehand, but I really loved it. The speakers are so knowledgeable and passionate about their chosen topic, and the amount of time dedicated to questions from the audience was great as it really brought in alternative views."
Exeter University student

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