Birmingham Salon is inspired by the Insitute of Ideas' annual debating festival The Battle of Ideas which takes place in London on the last weekend of October each year. It was formed in the belief that Birmingham needs the same channels for intellectual debate. There is a largely unmet demand in Birmingham for challenging debate, led by expert speakers and involving anyone who is interested.
Salon debates are not the stale affairs so often witnessed on Question Time or Any Question, where adversarial politicians engage in point scoring and one-upmanship. Rather the salon aims to get to the bottom of controversial ideas. We believe debate is important in our anti-intellectual times and is the basis for changing society for the better.
We aim to attract an audience who are prepared to challenge speakers, and be challenged by new ideas, so we have a genuine public conversation. If this approach upsets some apple carts and challenges some orthodoxies all the better.
There are a growing number of salon members some who attend every meeting and some who come occasionally. We are a friendly bunch who take ideas and debate seriously. We generally continue the dicsussion in the pub afterwards.
Jason Smith is Director and Chair of the salon and a freelance journalist. He blog's here
Birmingham Salon on Facebook
On Twitter @ birmingham salon
If you would like to get involved in helping to organise the salon please contact Jason
Visit the podcasts blog to hear previous salon discussions here