Events
ResPublica at Party Conferences 2010
Following the hugely successful launch of our 'Ownership State' report during party conference season in 2009, we look forward to a strong presence at all three party conferences this year.
ResPublica will be hosting over 20 events at Liberal Democrat, Labour and Conservative Conferences, which include a broad range of public fringe discussions addressing topical issues at the forefront of the policy debate. All our public fringes are free to attend and do not require advance registration.
To find out more about our fringe events at Conservative Party Conference, and to download a programme, click here.
Our fringe programme for Liberal Democrat Party Conference will be available shortly.
Our fringe programme for Labour Party Conference will be available shortly.
For more information about ResPublica party conference events or any remaining partnership opportunities, please contact caroline.macfarland@respublica.org.uk
RIBA Research Symposium 2010: Does Beauty Matter?
ResPublica Director Phillip Blond will be speaking at the RIBA Research Symposium.
The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) will be holding its fifth annual research symposium on 23 September 2010, focusing upon one of the basic principles of architecture: beauty.
Architecture is often judged on its success in creating beauty, yet beauty is a slippery, uncomfortable and divisive subject. It is both a universal good and an enduring source of controversy, but what does it really mean?
As a society we are uneasy about discussing beauty, both on an individual and a professional level. The word rarely features in modern political discourse, and the concept can be dismissed as arbitrary, subjective, unnecessary, unaffordable, or elitist. Debates purporting to be about the beauty of the built environment often turn out, on closer inspection, to be about style, taste or political symbolism.
So how can beauty be both understood and applied? Do beauty and wealth go hand in hand, and if so why? Do we need our places to be more beautiful, and what would happen if they were? Can we value beauty, measure it or define its role in policy? Can anyone hoping to be taken seriously argue in favour of beauty? And what is the responsibility of the architect?
The symposium will tackle the significance and function of beauty today. Delegates will debate with architects, developers, community activists and politicians, informed by brand new research. High profile contributors will bring their varied perspectives to bear on the future of beauty, and the implications of beauty in our society.
Press are invited to attend this event; for further press information or to register your place, please contact Mina Vadon in the RIBA Press Office on 020 7307 3761, or email mina.vadon@inst.riba.org .
Featured Events
Venture Society Launch
The Venture Society, a flagship report from ResPublica's Civil Society and Social Innovation Unit, was launched at the SHINE UnConference on 13th May 2010. The report, part of a project commissioned by UnLtd, the largest provider of support to social entrepreneurs in the country, urges the new coalition government to create support infrastructure for start up social entrepreneurs, slash bureaucracy and introduce a tax change in its seven point blueprint to help create David Cameron’s Big Society.
ResPublica at the 2010 Party Conferences
Following the hugely successful launch of our 'Ownership State' report during party conference season in 2009, we look forward to having a strong presence at all three party conferences this year. We are currently developing our events programme, which will include a number of fringe events and cover a range of topics at the forefront of the policy debate.
ResPublica works closely with our partners and sponsors to collaborate on the event and the discussion topics. We look forward to engaging a diverse range of thinkers and innovators from business, politics and civil society.
To discuss potential partnership opportunities for our events programme, please contact Caroline Macfarland, Business and Events Manager caroline.macfarland@respublica.org.uk
Launch of Red Tory
On the 29th of March 2010 we hosted the launch of ResPublica Director Phillip Blond's new book 'Red Tory'. In Red Tory, Phillip Blond challenges the conventions of the orthodox left and right, proposing instead a genuinely progressive Toryism that will restore social equity, and revive British institutions and culture. To purchase a copy of the book please follow the link here.
Newsnight journalist Paul Mason presented a two part report of ‘Broken Britain’ on Monday and Tuesday nights the same week, drawing significantly on the Red Tory thesis with its emphasis on the importance of community cohesion and micro-economies. To watch please click here.
Launch of John Seddon’s latest book
We were delighted to host the launch of acclaimed public sector thinker and ResPublica fellow John Seddon’s new book, 'Delivering Public Services That Work/Systems thinking in the public sector: Case Studies’ on March 9th at 12:00pm. John Seddon's sustained campaign to get rid of the 'dangerous nonsense' of targets, benchmarks, quangos and assessments in the public sector has alarmed central government officials and civil servants but delighted chief executives and managers in local government, the NHS, police and elsewhere.
The event included a short presentation and discussion from a panel of leading practitioners as well as contributors to the case studies.
LISTEN TO THE PODCAST:
The video for this event will shortly be available below.
Damian Green MP speaks to ResPublica
ResPublica was delighted to host an evening speech by Shadow Immigration Minister, Damian Green MP, on the subject of civil liberties, entitled ‘Poor People Need Civil Liberties Too,’ at the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts on Tuesday 2nd March.
The ResPublica Launch
ResPublica was officially launched on the 26th of November 2009 by the leader of the Conservative Party, the Rt Hon David Cameron MP. It was a packed event attended by over 400 guests from across the political spectrum, the think tank world, leading businesses and the armed services, and more. Below you can watch both the speech given by the Rt Hon David Cameron MP, and that of ResPublica's Director, Phillip Blond, or browse pictures of the event.
Previous Events
The Future of Conservative Thinking
15 July 2010 - 6:00pm - 7:30pm at The Institute of GovernmentResPublica Director Phillip Blond will be speaking at The Institute of Government's event: 'The Future of Conservative Thinking'
With the Conservatives now in government, there is still much to be done in articulating their vision for the 'Big Society' and the civic revolution David Cameron has called for.Governing in a coalition will require the Tories to set the terms of political debate and make communicating these new Conservative principles all the more important.
The Institute for Government invites you to an evening seminar on 15 July where a panel will discuss the political thought that underpins the big ideas of progressive conservatism, and the challenges that await.
They will address questions such as "what drives the modern conservative view of society and government?" and "what are the future directions and tensions?"
The panel
Lord Bichard - Executive Director of the Institute for Government
Nicholas Boles - Conservative MP
Philip Blond - Director of ResPublica
James Forsyth - Deputy Editor of Spectator magazine
Jonty Olliff-Cooper - Associate of Progressive Conservatism project at DemosFor more information please visit their website: http://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/our-events/46/the-future-of-con...
The Future of Education
3 July 2010 - 3:30pm - 4:30pm at Wellington CollegeResPublica Director Phillip Blond will be speaking on at The Sunday Times Festival of Education on the topic 'The Future of Education.'
For more information please visit the festival website: http://www.festivalofeducation.org.uk/programme/saturday-3rd-july
Brain Drain: Is British Innovation here to stay?
29 June 2010 - 2:15pm - 3:30pm at the offices of Clifford ChanceResPublica Director Phillip Blond will be speaking at the Editorial Intelligence & partners' "Comment Conference" on the subject: Brain Drain: Is British Innovation here to stay?
For further information please visit the event website: http://www.commentconference.com/programme.htm
Beyond the Usual Suspects: Real Influence Matters
29 June 2010 - 10:00am - 5:00pm at Toynbee HallResPublica Director Phillip Blond will be speaking at the Campaign Company event 'Beyond the Usual Suspects: Real Influence Matters.'
Over the past few months, under commission from the London Empowerment Partnership, TCC has been conducting research on factors affecting residents' perceptions of their influence on local decision-making in London boroughs.
The research is now complete and we have emerged with some hard-hitting conclusions and practical recommendations for improvement.
"It's about interactions, being dealt with directly rather than ticking boxes" - discussion group participant
TCC is organising a conference on influence on Tuesday 29th June 2010 from 10-5pm at Toynbee Hall, London E1 to which representatives from local authorities in London and elsewhere, and any other interested organisations and individuals, are warmly invited to discuss these issues and move them forward. We are particularly keen to invite customer services professionals and front-line managers as well as communications and engagement specialists, as part of the process of spreading the responsibility for engagement more broadly across organisations.
The day will feature speakers from the RSA, Ipsos MORI and Cultural Dynamics, as well as the Department of Communities and Local Government (to be confirmed).
For more information and to rsvp please contact: Majeed; majeed@thecampaigncompany.co.uk or 020 8688 0650.
Total Community: Problem-solving community partners for the challenges ahead
28 June 2010 - 12:30am - 5:30pm at RBS AuditoriumResPublica Director Phillip Blond will be speaking at the Development Trust Association event 'Total Community: Problem-solving community partners for the challenges ahead.'
Whatever the outcome of the general election, every community will face an urgent question: can we find ways of doing more for less?
Central to answering this question will be Total Place studies, where public sector agencies come together to assess how to deliver better services for less money.
As Total Place is rolled out across the country, there will be opportunity to look with fresh eyes at the contribution others, including third sector organisations and social enterprises can make.
* Are there particular kinds of organisation, community anchors, community enterprises, for example, which have potential to drive forward positive change in a time of spending austerity? If so, how can their contribution be maximised?
* Can they - should they - be part of the Total Place solution? Should we be aiming for a Total Community approach - if so waht would that look like?This event will bring together leading policy makers, investors, government officials and community practitioners to address these questions ad identify practical ways forward.
For further information please visit the DTA website:http://www.dta.org.uk/whatsnew/events/Symposium10
Co-operatives 2010 Conference
26 June 2010 - 9:20pm - 10:45pm at Pavilions ArenaOpening Plenary - There is an alternative.
The first session of the opening plenary will hear arguments for co-operation from three key note speakers each with a distinct and different perspective on co-operation and the co-operative model of business.
Will Hutton
Will is executive vice chair of the Work Foundation which is widely recognised as one of the most influential voices on work, employment and organisation issues in the United Kingdom. Regularly called on to advise senior political and buiness figures and comment in the national and internationa media, Will is today one of the most pre-eminent economics commentators in the country.
Phillip Blond
Widely regarded as the architect of "Red Toryism" and one of David Cameron's inner circle of advisers Phillip is director of ResPublica, and a research fellow at NESTA. He is an internationally recognised political thinker, and economic and cultural commentator. His work has attracted considerable attention as an advocate of a radical, progressive Toryism. Prospect named him as the British thinker to watch in 2009, and The Times called his forthcoming book 'Red Tory' one of the highlights of the year to come.
Richard Wilkinson
Richard is a researcher in social inequalities in health and the social determinants of health. A co founder of the Equality Trust, his work has shown that societies with more equal distribution of incomes have better health outcomes than ones in which the gap between richest and poorest parts of society is greatest.
For more information please visit: http://www.congress.uk.coop/2010programme
The Trouble with Society
24 June 2010 - 6:45pm - 8:00pm at Cinema 1ResPublica Director Phillip Blond will be speaking at 'The Trouble with Society' event at the ICA.
From David Cameron's 'big society' to numerous think tank projects on civic engagement, why is the concept of community suddenly at the centre of political debate? At a time when traditional approaches to social ills proposed by the left and right - more state intervention versus less regulation of the market - are failing to offer new answers, it's perhaps not surprising that both main parties now emphasise the role of active citizenship as a model for revitalised neighbourhoods and communities. But what does the 'big society' look like? What does it mean to live according to the values of citizen ethics? What happens when we embrace citizen power? And what has to change in politics and society for those ideas to become part of how we live, rather than the latest faddish notion?
Chaired by ICA director Ekow Eshun.
For tickets and further information please visit: http://www.ica.org.uk/24720/Talks/The-Trouble-with-Society.html
An evening seminar with Barry C. Lynn, “Built to Crash: Deconstructing the myths of big Industry”
23 June 2010 - 6:00pm - 7:30pm at NESTAJoin us on Wednesday 23rd June, 6pm at NESTA, as ResPublica Fellow and internationally renowned journalist and economics commentator, Barry C. Lynn will be discussing the phenomenon of the industrial crash.
His talk will show how concentration has destabilized some of our most vital industrial systems, by making them “too integrated to fail”, and provide a rather scary picture of how the world’s production systems are actually structured. It will provide an engineering-centered, common sense-based demonstration of why we have no choice but to restructure our industrial systems, hence why we must rethink entirely our competition and trade regulation regimes.
Barry C. Lynn is director of the Markets, Enterprise, and Resiliency Initiative and a senior fellow at the New America Foundation. He is author of Cornered: The New Monopoly Capitalism and the Economics of Destruction (Wiley 2010) and End of the Line: The Rise and Coming Fall of the Global Corporation (Doubleday 2005). Lynn’s groundbreaking writings on industrial interdependence among nations and the growing fragility of complex industrial systems have attracted wide attention, and he has been invited to present his work to high officials in Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Taiwan, and the European Commission, as well as in the White House and U.S. Treasury Department.
Spaces for this event are limited and will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. Please register for the guest list here.
If you have further queries about this or any of ResPublica's other events, please contact: events@respublica.org.uk
Competition Policy: Serving the Public Interest?
21 June 2010 - 10:00am - 6:00pm at Canada HouseResPublica Director Phillip Blond will be speaking at the one day conference 'Competition Policy: Serving the Public Interest?', which aims to explore new approaches to competition policy.
For ticketing information contact:a.hallsworth@surrey.ac.uk
Competition, Markets and the State
18 June 2010 - 2:15pm - 4:00pm at Chatham HouseResPublica Director Phillip Blond will be speaking at the Chatham House 'Competition Policy in the New Decade' conference on the subject: Competition, Markets and the State. The event is chaired by Mark Williams, Director of NERA Economic Consulting.
There will be a Keynote Address by Lowri Evans, Deputy Director General for State Aid, DG Competition
European Commission. Followed by a panel discussion.Some of the issues addressed will be:
- Is the "competition culture" alive and well, or do competition authorities need to re-assert the case for competition policy?
- Can we expect rising intervention in markets by competition authorities around the world? Or just rising intervention by governments?
- Is competition in unregulated markets still the preferred way to organise economic activity?
- Does state subsidy have a proper role to play in the management of the economy?
- Have markets and competition lost some of their legitimacy?
Panellists:
Alex Nourry, Partner, Clifford Chance
Christian Ewald, Chief Economist, Bundeskartellamt
Phillip Blond, Director, Respublica
For more information please visit: http://www.chathamhouse.org.uk/events/
