Geoff is membership and events director for the Institute of Ideas. He also convenes the monthly IoI Book Club, and supervises the IoI's administration and event management. Geoff, a Bristol City Fan, writes for Culture wars and has his own blog.
Can Sport Save us All? with Geoff Kidder and Mark Dolley
Image Above: World Cup high spirits … Fans watch the England v Sweden game in Cologne during the 2006 World Cup. Police are hoping for a repeat of their good conduct there in South Africa. Photograph: Dan Chung for the Guardian
Tuesday, 22 June 2010 - 7:00pm to 9:00pm
The country seems more hungry than ever for sporting success, yet has an ambiguity and often outright hostility towards competition. At the same time we look to sport to make us healthier, wealthier and act as a moral beacon of fairness. Towards the business end of world cup month the Brighton Salon invites you to a discussion on the changing role of sport in British cultural life.
With the Olympics only two years away, is the dramatic increase in participation activities like running having an impact on elite athletic performance?
Presenting their own views on the question we will have a panel including Geoff Kidder, events director and the institute of ideas, Mark Dolley, member of the IOC and Dan Travis of the Brighton Salon. The discussion will be chaired by Dr Rob Clowes.
This discussion of two halves will take place will be proceeded by drinks and the second half of what has been dubbed the 'Battle of the Basket Cases' between Argentina and Greece.
Speaker
Speaker
A career in sports, public policy and communications has taken Mark from the House of Commons, to the International Olympic Committee, and from two Olympic bids for San Francisco back to London in time for 2012. He has represented Great Britain as an age group triathlete, and is currently leading Taking Part, a project whose goal is to provide a tangible link between increased participation in sport and London's hosting of the Olympic Games. Photo by Madly for Esquire Magazine.
Speaker
Dan is the Director of the Brighton Salon and has has written extensively about the Criminal Records Bureau checks on volunteers working with children and other problems facing competitive sport in the UK. Dan has published several articles and has had numerous Televison and Radio appearances in the UK and around the English-speaking world on the interplay between sport and society. He has also campaigned against public drinking restrictions and is currently writing a book on the decline of elite distance running and mass participation in time for the London Olympics. He has been a tennis coach for many years and runs a digital marketing firm.
Chair
Rob Clowes is a founder member and the chairman of the Brighton Salon: a serious but fun discussion forum based in Brighton. The Brighton Salon, modelled on the Salons of the 18th Century, has been organising cultural activities, especially its monthly meetings in Brighton since the summer 2006. He is currently setting up the Lisbon Salon along similar lines. He also performs with and is on the management committee of Lisbon´s English Language Theatre Company: The Lisbon Players.
In his professional life Rob is a researcher and lecturer working on core issues in the philosophy of cognitive science.
Having held positions at the University of Sussex for the last ten years where he is still a Visiting Research Fellow mainly at the Centre for Research in Cognitive Science (COGS) he recently accepted a Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship at the New University of Lisbon. He works especially on the material basis of consciousness, the role of language in mind and most recently he has been working on the relationship between cognition and technology through a number or prisms but with special regard to internet technologies. His latest project looks at virtuality as a model for representation.