About us
We believe there are three ingredients to civil disagreement that you only get by debating face to face: listening to what other people have to say, looking them in the eye when you tell them you disagree, and stepping into their shoes to understand why they think differently.
This is what we require all of our speakers to do at our Face to Face debates and though this has been made a lot more difficult by the pandemic, holding our debates on Zoom has allowed us to continue this tradition while moving all operations online until it is safe to stage live events again.
How Face to Face debates work
Face to Face debates are all about providing a space for people to practice civil disagreement themselves, so we recruit speakers from within our own community and give them a platform to make the case for or against each debate motion.
We set only ONE condition: they must agree to defend whichever position we assign them, even if it means arguing against what they personally believe. This is how we encourage our members to step into the shoes of people who think differently and try seeing the world through their eyes. It is then for our audience to work out if they genuinely hold the position they are defending.
The audience has a big role to play on top of this. After being given time to discuss how they feel about the topic in breakout rooms before the debate starts, we then hand the floor over to them after hearing the opening arguments for both sides, so they can cross-examine the speakers with their questions and comments.
The debate ends with closing arguments from both sides and an audience vote to see where they stand. We follow that with a short discussion to see how many people changed their minds and why.
Upcoming events
2
- Network event
Is Hollywood Creatively Dead? - Whitechapel Debates
White Hart Brew Pub - E1 4TP, 1 Mile End Road, London, GB5 attendees from 2 groupsThis House Is Sick of Hollywood Remakes!
What We Do
3v3 panel debate where our members explore the strongest arguments for a given topic.
A debate should tell the audience what they need to know and not just what the speakers think. If you feel the same way, then we want to meet you.
Debate London is the year-round series of free public debates held weekly at venues across the capital. The series is run by Debate London, a social enterprise that helps its members to advance their personal and professional development by teaching them how to debate.
All of our speakers are Debate London members who have agreed to defend a particular perspective the audience need to hear, rather than just share their own personal opinion. After presenting the point of view assigned to them, the audience are then given the floor to cross-examine them and share their own position.
The only time we hear what the speakers really think is at the end of the debate when they tell us where they really stand and whether this changed at all while learning how to defend the perspective assigned to them.After Debate Social
After all of our debates we have a post debate hang-out. This is a chance for our community to get to know new people, explore new ideas and generally have more fun as a club! Come along and join us for a post-debate social!Venue
Our venues serve drinks (alcoholic and soft drinks) as well as brilliant food. All can be ordered from the bar
Do not bring external food or drink into our venues you will be asked to throw it away or to finish it outside. - This is a venue rule which we need to follow.2 attendees from this group
Past events
631
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