19 Dec 2011 | Literary Events

The Independent Bath Literature Festival 

Baillie Gifford was delighted to sponsor the Money
Matters series of events at The Independent Bath
Literature Festival for the third year running. 

Taking place from 2 - 11 March 2012, the festival offered attendees ten days of intellectual and passionate debate, informed discussions and scientific enquiry, together with some of the best contemporary fiction, poetry, music and art.

Baillie Gifford was proud to sponsor the following events:
 

Why is it kicking off everywhere?
(Saturday 3 March, 1.00-2.00pm)

Our world is changing dramatically. The global economic crisis has given way to social crisis; corrupt and dictatorial politics enmeshed with a global financial elite, and an ever-widening gulf between the haves and have-nots. From London to Cairo, Wisconsin to Tehran, we have witnessed new forms of collective action; fluid networks of agile, Twitter and Facebook-savvy networks of youthful protesters, who understand how power works. How radically do we now need to think about political alternatives, elite rule and global poverty? BBC Newsnight’s Paul Mason discusses the issues with Allan Little.

 

David Erdal: Beyond the Corporation
(Saturday 3 March, 4.30-5.30pm)

A blueprint for the 21st-century business; owned by its employees who share in the benefits -information, influence and wealth. David Erdal has ‘walked the walk’, leading the successful transfer of his large family business to its employees, and helping others to do the same. He gives a breath-taking overview of employee ownership over the years and across continents, spelling out the arguments for democratic worker ownership.

Tim Harford Adapt
(Sunday 4 March, 2.45-3.45pm)

Tim Harford, author of the global bestseller The Undercover Economist, takes on the biggest challenges facing the modern world – from world conflict to climate change – and questions our approach to resolving these issues. Harford argues that our fear of failure paradoxically leads to greater and more dangerous failures – from oil disasters to the financial crisis. But just as importantly, this fear of failure hinders our ability to have and to value the big ideas that our world needs. Come and think big with not so tiny Tim.

Everything is Digital
(Thursday 8 March, 6.15-7.15pm)

Award-winning journalist and campaigner Heather Brooke takes us inside the Information War; from the headquarters of Google and Facebook to the murky world of Julian Assange and Wikileaks. Along the way Brooke explores the most urgent questions of the digital age: Where is the balance between freedom and security? And will the internet empower individuals, or usher in a new age of censorship, surveillance and oppression?

What should we do with our money?
(Friday 9 March, 1.00-2.00pm)

Britain’s personal debt now stands at £1.5 trillion, a little more than the country’s annual GDP. This is a shocking amount, but savers are facing a torrid time with low interest rates, high charges on financial products and a fear that pensions will not deliver the returns we need. What‘s to be done? Alex Brummer, author of The Crunch: How Greed and Incompetence sparked the Credit Crisis and The Great Pensions Robbery discusses the future of global finance and its impact on all of us.

Made in Britain: Evan Davis
(Friday 9 March, 8.00-9.00pm)

Evan Davis, presenter of BBC 2’s Dragons’ Den, takes us on an utterly engaging tour of 21st century Britain, concentrating on British industry, its value and its relation to the economy now. This special event is for anyone who is interested in Britain’s economy and how our nation earns its living.

Martin Jacques on China
(Saturday 10 March, 2.45-3.45pm)

Soon China will rule the world. But in doing so it will not become more ‘Western’. Martin Jacques’s groundbreaking book overturns conventional thinking about the ascendancy of China, showing how its impact will not just be economic, but cultural. As China’s powerful civilization reasserts itself, it will signal the end of the dominance of the Western nation-state, and the start of a future of ‘contested modernity’. This far-sighted book explains for the first time the deeper meaning of China’s rise to power.

The future of learning and the global economy
(Sunday 11 March, 4.30-5.30pm)

Sugata Mitra is a Professor of Educational Technology whose famous ‘Hole in the Wall’ experiment in a Delhi slum demonstrated that groups of children, irrespective of who or where they are, can learn to use computers in public open spaces without any help. Now he explores the significance of this all over the world and talks inspiringly about the future of learning and the rapid growth of self-organising systems that will challenge the global status quo.

If you would like to keep updated with our future sponsorship activity, you can sign up to our email newsletter here.

« Back to events