Yesterday at the London Book Fair I participated in an Oxford-style debate called “The Great Debate”. Having been one of the biggest (and most fun) events at last year’s London Book Fair, The Great Debate returns this year with the motion “In the fight for survival, outsiders and start-ups are taking on today’s heavyweight publishers and will ultimately deliver a knock-out punch.”. The debaters included Evan Schnittman, Managing Director of Bloomsbury Publishing; Fionnuala Duggan, Managing Director, CourseSmart; Bob Young, CEO & Founder, Lulu; and yours truly. I don’t believe I have to tell you who are supporting and who are against the motion :-)
The motion was purposely provocative, which was great as it made sure the debate was entertaining. It was great fun for me as I haven’t participated in any Oxford-style debate for a long long time. If you want to know who won at the end, Publishers Weekly had a great coverage here.
Here is what I had prepared in advance. Of course, the live version was a bit different. E.g. In the beginning I added “I wonder why Bob and I are using iPads to take notes while our opponents are using paper” :-)