The Edinburgh Futures Institute’s autumn 2023 season, “Power Trip,” ended its run with over 3,200 tickets sold.
Our “Power Trip” season ran from 12 October to 20 November 2023, exploring the theme of leadership in all its forms – from the seats of power to the front lines of activist movements and even in our own workplaces.
Like our previous event seasons in autumn and spring 2022, majority of this season’s free events were offered in hybrid format. Attendees from 57 countries across 6 continents tuned in to our livestream events.
Season highlights
In keeping with our ethos of co-production and interdisciplinarity, our “Power Trip” event season featured co-created events delivered with authors, artists, researchers and practitioners who explored notions of leadership from various vantage points.
The season opened with two Edinburgh Futures Conversations events on “The Futures of Leadership.”
The flagship conversations event focused on “Leadership in Times of Crisis.” Held at McEwan Hall, the all-female panel included leading activists, authors, and thinkers: Alicia Garza, Talat Yaqoob, Elif Shafak, Maja Göpel, and was chaired by author and journalist Gavin Esler.
Following the first Conversations event, award-winning novelist, Elif Shafak said:
“This was such an inspiring meeting of minds and hearts, especially in these difficult and heartbreaking times, it felt like an oasis of calm, constructive and intersectional thinking.”
The second Futures Conversations event was a special collaborative performance between composer Pippa Murphy and poet Tim Tim Cheng, exploring the emotional structure of alternative organisations.
The “Power Trip” programme featured leading experts in various spaces and disciplines exploring, challenging, and defining notions of leadership.
The season explored leadership in digital spaces in events featuring authors David Runciman and Cory Doctorow. For Black History Month, RACE.ED led a conversation about the challenged idea and risks of leadership through the lens of Black and Afrocentric movements across the world. Leadership was explored in events centred on the culture of healthcare, the transnational feminist network pushing for reproductive rights, the history of the disability rights movement, and emotions in our workspaces. Our Utopia Lab event imagined the future of leadership through a participatory workshop. The New Real led an event exploring the role of the artist in leading the way for developments in artificial intelligence (AI). The programme closed with an event exploring the geopolitics of AI where experts discussed how AI is shaping the future of nations and global relationships.
Attendees said:
“This was a brilliant event and a fascinating discussion – if anything, it’s a shame it wasn’t longer as a lot of ground was covered and more space for discussion and questions at the end would have enabled us to explore the issues even further.“
“This event has been one of my greatest privileges as a student of the University of Edinburgh. I believe the issues discussed and reflections made should touch all members of the University of Edinburgh community. This event carried us to open a profound personal enquiry concerning not only what do we want to do in this world, but who do we want to be in this world.“
All events were free to attend and open to the wider public, in line with the Futures Institute’s commitment to accessibility and fusion learning (online and on-campus learning).
The Edinburgh Futures Institute thanks everyone who made the “Power Trip” season a success – our partners, speakers, performers, and attendees from all over the world. We look forward to welcoming you to our future event seasons!
