Aspen Annual Conference 2014
THE ASPEN ANNUAL CONFERENCE: The Big Bang. 25 Years Since Annus Mirabilis.
The upcoming annual conference will commemorate the momentous events that took place across Central and Eastern Europe 25 years ago. Respected panelists will focus on geopolitical changes that followed the fall of Communism and will evaluate their political, cultural, and economic impacts and legacy for the present and future.
An opening debate between former U.S. Secretary Madeleine K. Albright and by Michael Zantovsky, the President of the Aspen Institute in Prague, will open the conference, followed by a panel focusing on the significance of the year 1989. Its panelists will include the President of Estonia Toomas Hendrik Ilves, former Slovak Minister of Finance Ivan Mikloš and former EU Commissioner Danuta Hübner. The second panel will focus on analyzing the goals and expectations of the fall of the Wall. It will be attended by Šimon Pánek, Martin Bútora, Zbyněk Frolík and Martin Jahn.
The second day of the annual conference will commence with a keynote speech delivered by former U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman. The morning panel, “Breaking the Ties of Totality”, will look at the heritage of totality and discuss the current status of social and political challenges in the region with former Slovak Prime Minister Iveta Radičová among others. The fourth and final panel of the conference, “Central Europe – New Reality, New Energy?”, will bring together successful young leaders of the past decade, including Taťána le Moigne; Adam Somlai-Fischer, Michal Hvorecký and Jan Hamáček.
The full draft agenda of the Aspen Annual Conference 2014 can be found here. To register for the conference, please click on this link. Registration will close by June 4, 2014.
For conference updates, please follow our profiles on Facebook and Twitter (#aspen_mirabilis).
The conference is organized under the auspices of Milan Štěch, President of the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic.
