In collaboration with the Politiken Foundation, in the fall of 2020 we invited influential opinion makers to rethink the way we discuss the issues that divide us. We were visited by Minister of Culture Joy Mogensen, Member of Parliament Pelle Dragsted, and party leaders Pernille Skipper and Søren Pape. In addition, religious leaders including Bent Melchior, Naveed Baig, and Sørine Gotfredsen took part in the debate.
Museum director Jane Sandberg, college principal Jasper Gramkow, journalist Paula Larrain, author Anne Lise Marstrand, and former journalist Flemming Rose were cultural figures who made their mark on the events. We also invited leading physicist Holger Bech Nielsen, meteorologist Jesper Theilgaard, and CEPOS economist Martin Ågerup.
We are fighting for conversation salons to become an institution in local communities throughout Denmark. The dialogue coffee events were therefore spread across the Danish regions, where we visited Oure Højskole, Aarhus, Kolding, Copenhagen, and Herning. We invited local political organizations and other enthusiasts to ask questions along the way.
The panel participants had to introduce each other and share at least one thing they agreed on. Secretary General Özlem Cekic kept the debates on track with our five bridge-building principles, which you can see at the bottom of the page. We gave the audience voting cards to show if they had changed their minds during the debate. Finally, all debates ended with a cup of coffee for the participants and an invitation to continue the conversation with someone they disagree with. Learn more about the five events below.
