Bruntwood partners with Leeds International Festival of Ideas
By Bruntwood
What is Leeds International Festival of Ideas?
A metropolitan celebration of new ideas and innovation, Leeds International Festival of Ideas (LIFI) brings together world-leading thinkers, creators and pioneers. This year, some of the brightest minds in Leeds and beyond will be confronting the most significant challenges of our time and constructing radical new visions of the future.
The most ambitious cultural project in the city, LIFI takes place in several locations around Leeds. First premiering in 2017, the Festival invites the world’s leading figures to Leeds to discuss new ideas and explore the world of tomorrow.
Why does Bruntwood support the Festival?
Leeds International Festival of Ideas is playing a significant part in making the city an exciting, culturally rich place to be. Our partnership with the festival is perfectly aligned with our purpose of creating thriving cities, helping to shape Leeds' vibrant character.
Pushing the city forward as a hub of invention and inclusivity, the Festival will create outstanding experiences for residents and visitors alike. Showcasing home-grown talent and businesses, as well as hosting extraordinary events, the Festival pitches the city as an international destination with an ambitious future.
What to expect this year?
There are a whole host of exciting speakers set to grace the stages throughout the Festival from Campaigner, speaker and writer, Gina Martin (well-known for running the national campaign to make upskirting illegal by creating the Voyeurism Act) to internationally renowned entrepreneur, Kanya King MBE CBE (CEO, founder and visionary behind the MOBO organisation).
Discussing entertainment, technology, science, media, sociology and global affairs, each of the speakers will add something new to the Festival as together they aim to challenge our understanding of the world today and deliver an exciting vision of the future.
The series of panel discussions this year will cover morality, the future of food, the planet, inequality and the power of the media. You can see the whole lineup here.
Living in a future city
One discussion that particularly resonates with Bruntwood is the ‘Living in a Future City’ event set to take place on 21st September, hosted by George Clarke.
The current state of our cities in the UK is at a turning point. If we want city dwellers of tomorrow to thrive, we need to embrace and overcome interdependent challenges in urban infrastructure, transport, the natural environment and urban systems and services that impact health, wellbeing and the economy.
Clarke (The Restoration Man, Council House Scandal) will explore the potential of our urban future and ask the question, ‘how will the city of the future look?’. And after almost 18 months of COVID restrictions, our wants and needs from our cities have evolved, as we’ve explored in our ‘What Makes A Thriving City?’ report. Now is the time to learn from our cities and develop them into places that work better from everyone.
Find out more about the Festival
Maybe you want to explore the free-to-all Discovery Zone which has a range of interactive events and workshops throughout the Festival, or you simply want to know how to get to the venues, all the information can be found on the LIFI website.
Find out more about all of our partnerships on the Bruntwood website.