RSA Events

The Most Reverend Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury delivers the first in a series of keynote addresses by leading public figures responding to the RSA’s annual theme of COURAGE.

In 2024, in a time of overlapping global crises, it’s clear that radical courage will be required of us as individuals and as a society - in our communities and institutions at local and national levels, and not least among those in public life - if we are to make decisive progress on our interconnected economic, environmental and social challenges, and create truly just and flourishing futures for people in the places, and on the planet, they inhabit. That will require at least two things: the willingness to step out of our comfort zones and into the storms and waves, to protect the poor, the vulnerable and nature itself, and a clear sense of where to find the resources beyond ourselves to discover that courage. 

#RSAcourage

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The founder of the Bradford Literature Festival talks to the RSA’s CEO about how cultural activity can build stronger communities and drive economic growth.

Syima discusses her background, the creation in 2014 of the Bradford Literature Festival as an eclectic and inclusive cultural event, and developments over the following nine years.

She also talks about the Festival’s focus on younger people and the BLF’s impact on local regeneration and outlines the future for it as this major cultural event prepares for its tenth anniversary and beyond.

Charlie Paton RDI, award-winning product developer, maker, designer and forester will give this year's RDI Address.

Earth, Wind and Fire

Just add water – a climate recipe

As we lurch from one crisis to the next, our present and future is looking decidedly sub-optimal.  We have the tools and technologies to fix things, but are we using them wisely?

For everything we make or use, the materials have either grown or been mined. Everything either comes from plants or a hole in the ground. The products have all been designed somewhere by someone. Does that make designers part of the problem or part of the solution? If so, how?

Can we conceive of solutions to our world’s climate emergency, forest fires and rising sea levels, conflict and the hunger that goes with it – all while cooling the planet? Charlie offers some suggestions. 

Prior to the Address, 4 new Royal Designers for Industry (RDI) and 3 new Honorary Royal Designers for Industry will be welcomed to the Faculty.  

The title ‘Royal Designer for Industry’ is awarded annually by the RSA to designers of all disciplines who have achieved sustained design excellence, work of aesthetic value and significant benefit to society. 

The RDI is the highest accolade for designers in the UK. Only 200 designers can hold the title. Non-UK designers may become honorary Royal Designers. 

The ‘Royal Designers’ are responsible for designing the world around us, enriching our cultural heritage, driving innovation, inspiring creativity in others and improving our quality of life.  

#RSARDI

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RSA Student Design Awards – the world’s longest-running student design competition – is celebrating its 100th birthday!

To mark the SDA centenary year, we are honoured and delighted to announce a very special event awarding the 2023 Bicentenary Medal to Satish Kumar and Schumacher College for their outstanding contributions to education that is enabling people, places and the planet to flourish in harmony. We welcome them into the tapestry of RSA design winners past and future.

We’ll also be inviting trailblazers from the RSA’s global SDA alumni community to share their reflections on the impact that winning an SDA had on their future career in innovation, as we launch our most inclusive, most imaginative awards year yet.

The main stage event will be followed by an exhibition: '100 years designing for and from the future', sharing, for the very first time, rich stories and artefacts from the SDA archive.

Join us as we embark on an exciting new chapter in RSA award-giving history: the future, when woven collectively, can only be brighter.

Find out more about the Student Design Awards and Bicentenary Medal

#sda100

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Every health system in the world is experiencing extraordinary challenges in the decade ahead. The good news is that we’ve increased life expectancy; now we need to increase life quality, address health disparities, and reduce the burden on an over-stretched NHS workforce. And that will mean a paradigm shift in our approach to health and care towards a new model of prevention and holistic health creation.

Professor Sir John Bell is uniquely well placed to share insights into what could go right for health in the UK. As government Life Sciences Champion, chair of the Our Future Health programme, former Covid testing tsar and world-leading geneticist and immunologist, he has unrivalled knowledge of the challenges we face across the health ecosystem – from labs to local communities, from hospital wards to the corridors of power - and a truly expert view of the policies we need to put health at the heart of our approach to economic development, and support innovation to flourish.

Join Sir John at the RSA in Longevity Week to explore what it will take to harness the full potential of progress that’s being made at the cutting-edge of science and technology to secure healthier longer lives for people right across the UK.

Find out more about the RSA’s work on Economies for Healthier Lives
In partnership with Longevity Week

#RSAHealth

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We are part of a complex technological system. We depend on this system for the way we work, the way we live, the way we think. How do we choose and regulate the technology which will help us build better futures for people, place and planet?

Drawing from his new book ‘The Machine Age: An Idea, a History, a Warning’, economic historian Robert Skidelsky sheds light on our fractured relationship with machines from humanity’s first tools down to the present and into the future. He traces the interactions between capitalism and technology, and between science and religion in the making of the modern world.

Navigating the risks and opportunities presented by technological advancement, Lord Skidelsky explores the evolution of our understanding of technology and what this means for our lives and politics.

#RSATechnology

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Despite many successive administrations’ attempts to modernise and improve the civil service, deep-rooted challenges remain, with instability and falling morale. How can we embed positive change in the Whitehall machine – change that lasts?

In the wake of the fallout from Brexit, the global pandemic, and the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, a well-functioning civil service is more critical than ever to the future success of the nation.

Drawing on insights from a major new report featuring candid reflections from current and former civil servants, our panel will discuss the current health of civil service culture, structure and operations, as well as the main barriers that continue to impede its systemic capabilities.

Join us at the RSA to explore what could go right for Whitehall: the challenges ahead, the state of the workforce, and the practical reforms that could be the key both to better government and to Britain’s future prosperity.

In partnership with Reform

#RSAReform

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We in the West appear to be at a year zero, with the seeming end of the relative peace and prosperity we took for granted. For years our politicians have said they were going for growth and would ensure that those with least would benefit disproportionately from the proceeds of that growth. They've failed. Growth has vanished. The poorest are desperately struggling to heat their homes and to eat. Confidence in our fundamental institutions has been undermined by leaders who have an uncomfortable relationship with the truth and by an economy that has mainly served the richest.

In their new book Bust?, award-winning journalist, ITV political editor Robert Peston and co-author Kishan Koria ask: if the chaos of the last few years marks the end of the old order as we knew it, what will and should follow, to rebuild prosperity, and restore a sense of national pride and solidarity of purpose? The time for pessimism and fatalism is over, they argue – now we need urgently to look for answers.

Join Robert and Kishan at the RSA to begin the debate about what could go right for our economy, politics and society – and how we might hope again.

#RSAeconomy

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Recent years in British politics have seen extraordinary turmoil, including the fastest turnover of ministers in history and more MPs suspended from the House than ever before. Faith in politics and politicians is at an all-time low, and the work of honest and accountable MPs tarnished.

Drawing from his experience as MP for Rhondda and Chair of the Committee on Standards and Privileges, Sir Chris Bryant examines how parliament got into this mess and suggests how it might get its house in order at this critical moment for the good functioning of government.

#RSAParliament

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Exploring insights from the Global Science Partnership – engaging citizens, climate scientists and policymakers to develop and implement ambitious climate action.

Our Future Together is an innovative global science and public engagement partnership, which brings academic and research communities, policymakers, civil society, and the public’s perspectives together to spark more effective and more inclusive climate action.

Over the course of 2022-2023, citizens, scientists and government representatives from three pilot countries - Colombia, Kenya and the Seychelles – have been working together to address one key policy and engagement challenge in their national food and agriculture systems.

Join us to hear what the participants learned from the experience, and to explore the impact the pilots are set to have on future climate action, at both national and global scale.

In partnership with the Global Science Partnership

#RSAclimate

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Amy Edmondson has been named the most influential management thinker in the world. In her latest work, she introduces the three archetypes of failure – simple, complex and intelligent – and explains how to harness the revolutionary potential of the good failures - and eliminate the bad. 

Drawing on illuminating case-studies, from the history of open-heart surgery to the Columbia Space Shuttle disaster, Edmondson offers techniques for overcoming confirmation bias and practicing persistence, reflection and accountability. 

Such essential attributes and attitudes form the basis of the RSAs 10Cs framework for business which we are exploring as part of our Regenerative Capabilities Coalition. https://www.thersa.org/projects/regen... 

Join Amy Edmondson in conversation with Tim Harford at the RSA for leading-edge insights into the science and solutions that can help us promote greater innovation, efficiency and safety in our teams - both at work and in life.

#RSAwork

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In his speech at the RSA, the Lord Speaker of the House of Lords, Lord McFall of Alcluith, will discuss options for reform of Parliament’s Upper House, to enhance the effectiveness of its work of scrutiny and revision of legislation, as well as its capacity for addressing the long-term challenges facing the UK.

Drawing on his experience of interrogating banking executives in the Treasury Committee in the wake of the 2007-08 financial crisis, Lord McFall will discuss Parliament’s role in considering the current economic upheavals, including the ongoing cost-of-living crisis.

Lord McFall of Alcluith is the Lord Speaker of the House of Lords. He is the 4th Lord Speaker since the post was created in 2006 and was elected in 2021, following a whole House election.

Prior to becoming a Peer in 2010, he was MP from 1987-2010 for Dumbarton and West Dunbartonshire and served as chair of the House of Commons Treasury Select Committee.

#RSALordsReform

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Katherine Rundell is an award-winning author, and widely acknowledged as one of the finest children’s writers of her generation. Her new book Impossible Creatures is a clarion call to readers to fight to save precious creatures of all kinds before they vanish before our eyes.

Sir Michael Morpurgo is a former Children’s Laureate, and author of countless classics from Private Peaceful to War Horse. Michael founded Farms for City Children with his wife Clare, and in a new edition of his book All Around the Year, he documents life during a farming year, accompanied by poems from Ted Hughes. He is a passionate advocate for access to nature and reading for pleasure.

The living things of the natural world – their wildness, strangeness, wonder and beauty – are a deep source of inspiration for both writers.

Join Katherine and Michael as they explore the enduring power of storytelling, the special gifts of childhood, and why young people’s right to nature, play and creativity needs defending now, more than ever.

In partnership with LoveReading and LoveReading4Kids

Find out more about Playful Green Planet

#lovereading

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The UK Chancellor’s recent Mansion House speech promised to “unleash the superpower” of Defined Contributions pension funds in order to “seize the opportunities of the future”.

 The proposed reforms and a new compact with leading pension providers aim to increase savers’ incomes and unlock billions of pounds of investment capital to fund high growth enterprises.

 But will this new policy direction deliver on its promise? And is it radical enough? This money is our pension savings; to what should the government decide it is invested? Will these reforms really give us a more prosperous life in retirement? 

 Join our panel of experts at the RSA to ask: what are the tools, incentives, structures and strategies that will prove most effective in creating greater opportunities for people and communities to thrive in a transformed global economy?

#RSAPensions

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In a wide-ranging interview, the architect of the 2015 Paris Agreement speaks to the RSA’s CEO about how she first became involved in climate issues, how success was achieved in Paris, the importance of market forces and how outrage helps fuel her optimism for the future of our planet. 

Fellows Talks Session 3 

Speakers: Malini Mehra FRSA, chief executive, GLOBE International; chair of the London Sustainable Development Commission Just Transition work programme; ambassador, London Climate Action Week 

Chair: Martin Wright, RSA Fellow, award-winning writer, editor and speaker on environmental solutions and sustainability futures; director, Positive News

https://www.londonclimateactionweek.org/

https://www.positive.news/

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Fellows Talks Session 2 

Speakers: Stephen Oram | In Pursuit of Consensual Futures, Meena Wood | Education Transformed, Enabling All To Achieve and Rachel Drapper | Let’s talk dirty… dishes. Chores, the mental load and why sharing them matters. 

Chair: Martin Wright, RSA Fellow, award-winning writer, editor and speaker on environmental solutions and sustainability futures; director, Positive News

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Fellows Talks Session 1 

Chidi Oti Obihara | Cop 28 Climate Action Plan 

Speaker: Chidi Oti Obihara, RSA Fellow, environmentalist, climate finance expert and co-founder, COP 28 Climate Action Plan 

Chair: Martin Wright, RSA Fellow, award-winning writer, editor and speaker on environmental solutions and sustainability futures; director, Positive News

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How to change the climate story

Julia George talks to Rebecca Solnit, author, climate activist and co-editor, with Thelma Young Lutunatabua, of "Not Too Late: changing the climate story from despair to possibility". 

https://www.nottoolateclimate.com/

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How to regenerate the economy 

Andy Haldane in conversation with Shevaun Haviland, director-general, British Chambers of Commerce; Sebastian Payne FRSA, director, Onward; and Jo Swinson FRSA, director, Partners for a New Economy.

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