Every event, like a book or move, needs its own elevator pitch, a way to explain what it is in ten seconds in the case the person you’re talking to has a low attention span. When we tell people about the Festival of Big Ideas, we usually say ‘it’s like Tedx but with participation and community.’
If you’re on this website contemplating coming to the festival, you’re probably the kind of person who reads interesting books, listens to podcasts on a variety of topics, watches talks on Youtube. There are so many fascinating ideas out there. So much incredible knowledge to be gathered. There’s just one thing missing: you.
There exist any number of conferences and symposiums where speakers line up to present an array of ideas and you spend the better part of the day on your ass, listening to great experts and great speakers (though often the people who know a lot aren’t that great at communicating it and the people who are great at communicating may not know a lot…) and watching the clock until the next coffee break.
At the Festival of Big Ideas we want to flip that on its head. Before you come to the festival you will have a chance to read the ideas of the speakers we’re inviting, or listen to their speeches, and then in the session, they will give a brief summary of the ideas they wish to present and then get you involved in discussing them. You’ll work in pairs and small groups, pooling ideas to answer questions on the relevant topic, exploring and challenging your own ideas, presenting your conclusions to the rest of the room.
And the discussions don’t stop at the end of the session. We’re all hanging out in the same castle for the weekend and the discussions can continue over a cup of coffee or a walk in the forest 🙂