Our day-long sixth form conference - the Independent Seminar on the Open Society - was a roaring success. Over 200 school students attended the event which was held in an upmarket conference venue in Westminster.

The theme for the seminar was 'Britain and the World' and the aim was to challenge and discuss some of the conventional wisdom about globalization. The topics looked at subjects like the environment, poverty, economic migration and culture. The BBC's Political Editor Andrew Marr explained that his role at the BBC was much more international that he had expected and that British politics would continue to be very international. He also led a very informative Q&A session. Dr Madsen Pirie argued that the best way to defeat global poverty was through economic growth, and that to grow, a country needed to adopt 'peace, easy taxes and a tolerable administration of justice'. Shadow Secretary of State for International Development Alan Duncan MP spoke on 'Britain: peace and poverty' in which he put the case for action to fight AIDS.

Howard Flight MP spoke on the future of monetary and fiscal policy in a globalized world. Reason magazine's Julian Sanchez argued that globalization's effect on culture can be seen to have both positive and negative effects, but that on balance it was good. Cultural diversity experienced by tourists visiting world cities may be on the decline, but whereas in the past people experienced a monoculture where they lived, they now experience much greater diversity in their daily lives.

Dr Elaine Sternberg spoke on the risk of a 'brain drain' from the UK through greater regulation, bad infrastructure, and poor healthcare and education. The entrepreneur William Bracken, Chief Executive of DeHavilland, spoke on 'Making yourself and the country rich'. Dr Mark Pennington argued that free markets lead to improvements to the environment. And a certain Alex Singleton made the case against 'fair trade' in coffee and other products, instead arguing that removal of the Common Agricultural Policy, better governance in coffee-producing countries, and schemes helping people to switch from coffee production would do more good.

The conference ended with a drinks reception at the Institute's offices where students chatted with some of the speakers and staff from the ASI.