ResPublica Director Phillip Blond will be speaking at the Editorial Intelligence & partners' "Comment Conference" on the subject: Brain Drain: Is British Innovation here to stay?

For further information please visit the event website: http://www.commentconference.com/programme.htm

ResPublica Director Phillip Blond will be speaking at the Development Trust Association event 'Total Community: Problem-solving community partners for the challenges ahead.'

Whatever the outcome of the general election, every community will face an urgent question: can we find ways of doing more for less?

Central to answering this question will be Total Place studies, where public sector agencies come together to assess how to deliver better services for less money.

As Total Place is rolled out across the country, there will be opportunity to look with fresh eyes at the contribution others, including third sector organisations and social enterprises can make.

* Are there particular kinds of organisation, community anchors, community enterprises, for example, which have potential to drive forward positive change in a time of spending austerity? If so, how can their contribution be maximised?
* Can they - should they - be part of the Total Place so

ResPublica Director Phillip Blond will be speaking at 'The Trouble with Society' event at the ICA.

From David Cameron's 'big society' to numerous think tank projects on civic engagement, why is the concept of community suddenly at the centre of political debate? At a time when traditional approaches to social ills proposed by the left and right - more state intervention versus less regulation of the market - are failing to offer new answers, it's perhaps not surprising that both main parties now emphasise the role of active citizenship as a model for revitalised neighbourhoods and communities. But what does the 'big society' look like? What does it mean to live according to the values of citizen ethics? What happens when we embrace citizen power? And what has to change in politics and society for those ideas to become part of how we live, rather than the latest faddish notion?

Chaired by ICA director Ekow Eshun.

For tickets and further information please vi

ResPublica Director Phillip Blond discusses the Big Society on The Review Show, on Friday the 18th of June 2010. Click here to watch the show.

ResPublica Director Phillip Blond will be speaking at the Chatham House 'Competition Policy in the New Decade' conference on the subject: Competition, Markets and the State. The event is chaired by Mark Williams, Director of NERA Economic Consulting.

There will be a Keynote Address by Lowri Evans, Deputy Director General for State Aid, DG Competition
European Commission. Followed by a panel discussion.

Some of the issues addressed will be:

• Is the "competition culture" alive and well, or do competition authorities need to re-assert the case for competition policy?


• Can we expect rising intervention in markets by competition authorities around the world? Or just rising intervention by governments?


• Is competition in unregulated markets still the preferred way to organise economic activity?


• Does state subsidy have a proper role to play in the management of the economy?


• Have markets
  18 June 2010 13:15 - 13:15 10 St James's Square
  London
  SW1Y 4LE