Interview: It really is ‘summit’ special

As the Warwick Economics Summit looms, the Boar talks to the coordinators of the event.

On the 7th of February Warwick will once again welcome students from universities across the world – from Massachusetts to Moscow, Beijing to Bombay – as the annual 3 day Warwick Economic Summit arrives on campus.

With influential and revered speakers from Europe, Asia, Africa and America, the Summit will not disappoint and will provide a platform upon which students and guest speakers can exchange knowledge, engage in debates and think creatively.

The Summit’s issues go far beyond economics-based topics and encompass the broader spheres of the social sciences including development, politics, psychology and international relations.

This year looks set to be another great summit and The Boar have caught up with Summit coordinators – Gareth and Chris – to find out more.

A lot to smile about. Summit Coordinators – Gareth and Chris

Boar Money:  The summit is one of the largest student-run academic conferences in Europe and is one of a kind in providing an international forum where talented university students can listen to world-renowned speakers. So how much work goes into creating such a large event?

We both became the Summit Coordinators about a week after the 2013 Summit ended mid Term 2 and within a few weeks, we had recruited about half of our exec. The recruitment for the rest of our team then opened in October last year and our entire team of 50 have been hard at work ever since! We have weekly exec meetings and weekly team meetings; I couldn’t begin to estimate how many hours of planning have gone into this year’s Summit!

We have to plan the 7th – 9th February from end-to-end, including accommodation for external dele- gates, planning the streamlined operations throughout the weekend, inviting a great array of speakers, attracting sponsors, in addition to running our marketing plans to Warwick, the UK and further afield! It’s a big task, but it becomes manageable with a strong team be- hind you.

BM: The summit is now in its thirteenth year and since its beginnings in 2002 it has forged a great reputation for itself. The first summit hosted 170 students and this year you are looking to host 400 students with over half of those from outside Warwick. Why do you think the summit attracts so much attention year in year out and continues to be so popular?

I think this is due to the quality of the speakers that we attract. In the past, we’ve invited speakers such as John Kay, Dr. Vince Cable MP, Alastair Darling MP as well as Professor John Nash and Professor George Akerlof, both of whom are Nobel Laureates. As well as the speakers the opportunity to attend workshops and engage in debates with leading academic and industry figures has meant the Summit has become increasingly popular too.  Not to mention the friendly environment of Warwick which also helps to attract many students and speakers alike!

BM: As you mention previous years have had some very famous guest speakers.  What is exciting about the summit this year and which talks are you looking forward to the most?

This year continues to follow the trend of great speakers, for example we have Professor Eric Maskin, Nobel Laureate 2007, Dr. Gerard Lyons, Chief Economic Advisor to the Mayor of London and our very own Chancellor at the University of Warwick, Sir Richard Lambert! That’s just the icing on the cake, you should really take a look at our website at the full line-up! One of the most exciting events during the weekend is the Summit Ball. This year, we’ll be going for the Oscars theme, and we’re sure it will be a great night!

We are both looking forward to Sir Richard Lambert’s talk on “Can banks be reformed?”, it’s an extremely relevant topic and will be interesting to hear his industry perspective. Additionally, how can we not be excited for Professor Maskin’s talk, having a Nobel Laureate attend The Summit is always an amazing experience and we are both looking forward to learning from his diverse research.

BM: The event will undoubtedly be a sell out so how do Warwick students go about securing a ticket for this year’s event?

Internal Standard tickets will be going on sale for Warwick students via the SU website at 12 noon today, Wednesday 15th January! They’ll be on sale at £35 and grant access to all talks, seminars and our Oscar-themed Summit ball! Last year they sold out extremely quickly, so we’d recommend being near a computer at 12 to make sure you get one!

Many thanks to Gareth Cork & Christian Reddington for letting us interview them. We’ll see you at the Summit guys!