Edinburgh-based freelance journalist and editor of Political Insight, Peter Geoghegan, organised the FED conference this month in Edinburgh at the same time as the TEDGlobal conference that was taking place in the city. We previewed the TED event for you here but really did not get too much more information about it, were not invited along as press and simply could not justify the £4,000 fee which it would have cost to attend.
Geoghegan and some of his colleagues also considered that the price asked for the week long TEDGlobal event was a little beyond their reach, so decided to band together and organise their own one-day conference. He explains some of the thinking behind that on his website here. It was billed as a day of talks, discussions and ideas and took place on 9th July 2011 at Inspace, 1 Crichton Street, Edinburgh EH8 9AB
“Can humans live sustainably? Can creative thinking be nurtured? What ideas are worth nurturing and sustaining? Realpolitik and Bella Caledonia present ‘FED – Ideas Worth Sustaining’, a one-day program of talks, discussions, and, most importantly, ideas.
FED takes its cue from July’s TEDGlobal conference – but while TED costs an eye-watering £4,000 to attend, FED is a place of assembly genuinely open to all. Featuring presentations from creative thinkers and practitioners. Speakers include Gerry Hassan, Robin McAlpine, Lorna Waite and Kevan Shaw. There will also be an opportunity for the public to present ideas.”
We spoke to Geoghegan to find out more about why they staged the event and how the organisers thought it had gone:-
