Student Conferences and Evening Lectures

The Adam Smith Institute holds a number of conferences each year, both for sixth-formers and undergraduates. These conferences are a great way to learn more about free market economics and libertarian ideas. They are completely free of charge, and we usually throw in a few free books too.

Independent Seminar on the Open Society

Each year, we hold several ISOS (Independent Seminar on the Open Society) events at schools across the UK. An ISOS is a one-day conference for 100+ sixth-form students. Named after the seminal book The Open Society and its Enemies by the philosopher Sir Karl Popper, our ISOS events explore the principles and practicalities of an open, free, and tolerant society. The programmes are designed to mesh in with A-level and AS-level syllabuses in politics and economics. Speakers deliberately pitch their talks at a standard of difficulty and technicality that will be comprehensible, but challenging, to students at these levels, whilst challenging attendees and introducing some new ideas. 

Recent seminars have featured, amongst much else, Dr Madsen Pirie on the common mistakes policymakers and economists tend to make, Douglas Carswell MP on his idea of iDemocracy, Bioethicist Professor John Harris on the right to sell kidneys for money, and Philip Booth from the IEA on whether the UK is solving its debt problem. Recent debate topics have included ‘This House Believes That We Should Legalize Marijuana’ and ‘This House Believes That The Most Effective Poverty Reduction Strategy Is More Government Intervention’. Download a sample programme here.

ISOS events are held across UK schools in both the Autumn and Spring terms. Though not always the case, the hosting school often invites pupils from other local schools to attend. One teacher who organised a recent ISOS conference at Victory Academy, Kent, said: 

"This was an excellent event. We were extremely lucky to host such a prestigious event. Our students are intelligent and ambitious, however like all students they do not yet know what they do not yet know. Having enrichment of this type lifts the lid on the world and widens the understanding, and hopefully promotes higher thinking in students as they contemplate their future lives.

Thank you so much for an engaging and rewarding experience."

If you’re a teacher or student interested in finding out more about the ISOS programme or suggesting a school for us to visit, please get in touch with the Institute’s Director of Research, Maxwell Marlow, at maxwell@adamsmith.org

Evening Lectures

We also regularly hold more advanced evening lectures at our Westminster office for current university students, those about to start university, and the general public. These take the form of a short drinks reception followed by a 45-minute lecture and Q&A. Example talks include UEA Professor Robert Sugden on the problems with ‘nudging’, Dr Yaron Brook on inequality, and LSE Professor Paul Cheshire on the harms of planning restrictions.

You can find videos of previous lectures, and of our other events, on our YouTube channel. To attend one of these evening lectures, check out our upcoming events page here and follow the RSVP instructions.