SCHEDULE
WEDNESDAY
NOVEMBER 4
12:00 - 8:00 PM
ATTENDEE AND EXHIBITOR CHECK-IN
1st Floor
2:00 - 4:00 PM
PRE-CONFERENCE ACTIVITY FOR VIP TICKETHOLDERS
5:00 - 8:00 PM
WELCOME RECEPTION
Grand Ballroom | 1st Floor
Featuring remarks by FIRE President and CEO Greg Lukianoff and
live entertainment from Afroman
THURSDAY
NOVEMBER 5
8:00 - 9:00 AM
EMBER CLUB BREAKFAST
Clover Room | 1st Floor
Members of FIRE’s Ember Club are invited to gather for a private breakfast featuring FIRE President and CEO Greg Lukianoff
8:00 - 9:00 AM
BREAKFAST FOR ALL ATTENDEES
Rose Garden | 19th Floor
9:15 - 9:30 AM
OFFICIAL CONFERENCE WELCOME BY GREG LUKIANOFF
Grand Ballroom | 1st Floor
9:30 - 10:00 AM
OPENING KEYNOTE
Grand Ballroom | 1st Floor
The Fight for Free Speech by FIRE’s Executive Vice President Nico Perrino
10:45 - 11:45 AM
BREAKOUT SESSIONS
WHEN DOES CONSENSUS BECOME CONFORMITY?
Cameo Room | 19th Floor
sponsored by Heterodox Academy
JOHN TOMASI
Inaugural President, Heterodox Academy
SIAN BEILOCK
President, Dartmouth College
MICHAEL ROTH
President, Wesleyan University
NATHAN HONEYCUTT
Research Fellow and Polling and Analytics Manager, FIRE
THE FIRST AMENDMENT'S FUTURE:
A VIEW FROM THE COURTS
Pearl Room | 19th Floor
STEPHANOS BIBAS
Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
DAVID COLE
Professor, Georgetown Law; Former National Legal Director, ACLU
DARPANA SHETH
General Counsel, Center for Individual Rights
ILYA SHAPIRO
Senior Fellow and Director of Constitutional Studies, Manhattan Institute
THE SCIENCE OF OPEN MINDS
Cliveden Room | 19th Floor
HEATHER BERLIN
Professor of Neuroscience and Psychiatry, Mount Sinai
NITA FARAHANY
Professor of Law and Philosophy, Duke University
BARBARA OAKLEY
Professor of Engineering, Oakland University
ANDREW HARTZ
Founder and Executive Director, Open Therapy Institute
AI POLICY BEYOND CENSORSHIP
Clover Room | 1st Floor
ADAM THIERER
Senior Fellow, R Street and FIRE
ANDREW MAYNE
Founder, Interdimensional AI
DEAN BALL
Head of Strategic Futures, OpenAI
ELI NOAM
Economist and Professor,
Columbia Business School
12:00 - 1:30 PM
LUNCH AND KEYNOTE
Grand Ballroom | 1st Floor
Come enjoy lunch and a FIREside chat featuring Editor-at-Large of Reason, Nick Gillespie in conversation with author and journalist, Matt Taibbi
2:15 - 3:15 PM
BREAKOUT SESSIONS
THE FUTURE OF FREE SPEECH ONLINE
Clover Room | 1st Floor
ROBERT CORN-REVERE
Chief Counsel, FIRE
EUGENE VOLOKH
Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution
MIKE MASNICK
CEO and Founder, Techdirt
ANN BEESON
Civil Rights Lawyer, Nonprofit CEO and Philanthropy Executive
LIVE ADVISORY OPINIONS WITH SARAH ISGUR AND DAVID FRENCH
Pearl Room | 19th Floor
SARAH ISGUR
Senior Editor, SCOTUSblog
DAVID FRENCH
Columnist, The New York Times
UNIVERSITIES AT A CROSSROADS
Cameo Room | 19th Floor
HEATHER MAC DONALD
Fellow, Manhattan Institute; Contributing Editor, City Journal
MITCH DANIELS
Interim President, Purdue University
BEONG-SOO KIM
President, the University of Southern California
3:45 - 4:45 PM
BREAKOUT SESSIONS
THE TRUTH-SEEKING REVOLUTION
Clover Room | 1st Floor
sponsored by R Street Institute
JOHN HARDIN
Senior Fellow, Abundance Institute
SPENCE PURNELL
Senior Fellow, R Street Institute
RICK HEASLIP
General Counsel and Chief Regulatory Officer, Kalshi
MATT TAIBBI
Author and Journalist, Racket News
EXECUTIVE POWER AND THE FIRST AMENDMENT
Cliveden Room | 19th Floor
WILL CREELEY
Legal Director, FIRE
RYAN BANGERT
Senior Vice President and Special Counsel, Alliance Defending Freedom
JENIN YOUNES
President and Legal Director, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee
THOMAS BERRY
Director, Cato Institute’s Center for Constitutional Studies
DEFENDING THE “INDEFENSIBLE”
Cameo Room | 19th Floor
NADINE STROSSEN
Professor Emerita, New York Law School; Former President, ACLU
DAVID GOLDBERGER
Professor Emeritus, The Ohio State University; Former Legal Director, Illinois ACLU
MARC RANDAZZA
First Amendment Lawyer
PRESTON BYRNE
Tech Lawyer, Byrne and Storm, P.C.; Senior Fellow, Adam Smith Institute
IS MONEY SPEECH?
Pearl Room | 19th Floor
SARAH ISGUR
Senior Editor, SCOTUSblog
BRAD SMITH
Professor of Law, Capital University; Former Commissioner, FEC
LARRY LESSIG
Professor of Law and Leadership, Harvard University
5:15 - 6:15 PM
CONCLUDING KEYNOTE
Grand Ballroom | 1st Floor
Join us for remarks from Lenore Skenazy before we dig into a discussion on “Obscenity, Offense, and Free Speech” featuring the founder of SPIN, Bob Guccione, Jr. interviewed by the Comedy Cellar owner, Noam Dworman
9:00 - 11:00 PM
LIVE PERFORMANCE
Grand Ballroom | 1st Floor
Join us for “I’m Not a Comedian . . . I’m Lenny Bruce,” a one-man play written by and starring Ronnie Marmo
FRIDAY
NOVEMBER 6
8:00 - 9:00 AM
PHILANTHROPY IS FREE SPEECH BREAKFAST
Grand Ballroom | 1st Floor
Join us for a seated breakfast hosted by DonorsTrust, with a panel conversation on the relationship between philanthropy and free speech
9:00 - 9:45 AM
OPENING KEYNOTE
Grand Ballroom | 1st Floor
Join us for a conversation between John McWhorter, Columbia University linguist and cultural commentator, and Steven Pinker, Harvard University cognitive psychologist and author
10:15 - 11:15 AM
BREAKOUT SESSIONS
HOW FREE SPEECH FORGED AMERICA
Clover Room | 1st Floor
JEFFREY ROSEN
Senior Fellow, FIRE; Former President, National Constitution Center
STEPHEN SOLOMON
Marjorie Deane Professor of Journalism, New York University
RICHARD BELL
Professor of History, University of Maryland
AKHIL REED AMAR
Professor of Law and Political Science, Yale University
FIRST AMENDMENT BATTLEGROUND: DEFAMATION
Pearl Room | 19th Floor
SAMANTHA BARBAS
Law Professor, University of Iowa
CARSON HOLLOWAY
Professor, University of Nebraska Omaha; Fellow, Claremont Institute
FLOYD ABRAMS
First Amendment Lawyer, Cahill Gordon and Reindel LLP
MATTHEW SCHAFER
Media Litigator, First Amendment Scholar, Adjunct Professor
FREE SPEECH AND THE LEFT
Cameo Room | 19th Floor
TYLER AUSTIN HARPER
Staff Writer, The Atlantic
MUSA AL-GHARBI
Sociologist, Stony Brook University; Columnist, The Guardian
FREDDIE DEBOER
Writer and Academic
11:30 AM - 12:30 PM
BREAKOUT SESSIONS
20TH-CENTURY FREE SPEECH STRUGGLES
Cliveden Room | 19th Floor
NICO PERRINO
Executive Vice President, FIRE
ARYEH NEIER
President Emeritus, Open Society Foundations; Co-Founder, Human Rights Watch
AMY SOHN
Author, The Man Who Hated Women
RONALD K.L. COLLINS
Co-author, We Must Not Be Afraid to Be Free
THE GLOBAL CENSORSHIP CAMPAIGN
Clover Room | 1st Floor
ELIZABETH NOLAN BROWN
Senior Editor, Reason
POUYA NIKMAND
Writer, Advocate
BRENDAN O'NEILL
Chief Political Writer, sp!ked
SARAH MCLAUGHLIN
Senior Scholar, Global Expression, FIRE
HOW TO REVERSE THE FREE SPEECH RECESSION
Cameo Room | 19th Floor
sponsored by Free Society Coalition
CASEY MATTOX
Vice President, Legal Strategy, Stand Together
GREG LUKIANOFF
President and CEO, FIRE
JACOB MCHANGAMA
Founder and Executive Director, The Future of Free Speech
LEE ROWLAND
Executive Director, National Coalition Against Censorship
DISSENT IN SCIENCE AND MEDICINE
Pearl Room | 19th Floor
SALLY SATEL
Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute
JESSE SINGAL
Journalist, Podcaster, Former Senior Editor, New York Magazine
EVAN MORRIS
Professor of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, Yale University
JEFFREY FLIER
Professor of Physiology and Medicine, Harvard University
12:30 - 1:45 PM
VIP LUNCH
Conservatory Room | 12th Floor
All Soapbox VIP ticketholders are invited to enjoy a special networking lunch
2:00 - 4:00 PM
LIVE PODCAST AND CONFERENCE CLOSE
Miller Theater | 250 S. Broad Street
Join us for a live podcast recording of The Fifth Column with Kmele Foster, Michael Moynihan, and Matt Welch covering “The Future of Free Speech: What Will Matter in 2030?” with special guest Dr. Erika López Prater, and closing remarks from FIRE leadership
6:00 - 11:00 PM
THE SOAPBOX GALA
Grand Ballroom | 1st Floor
Reception from 6:00-7:00 PM, dinner from 7:00-9:30 PM, afterparty until 11:00 PM
For guests who purchased tickets to the Soapbox Gala, the celebration continues Friday evening with our big finale. Dress to impress and enjoy meeting and mingling with Soapbox speakers and FIRE leadership. Enjoy a delicious dinner, an inspiring showcase of FIRE’s work featuring brave Americans and the lawyers who defended them, a special award presentation to the much-admired and principled civil liberties defender David Goldberger, and a can’t-miss keynote address by the thoughtful and hilarious comic, Alex Edelman.
NOTE: Interested attendees are invited to join us for two Continuing Legal Education (CLE) sessions during Soapbox: Thursday, November 5 at 8:00 a.m. and Friday, November 6 at 12:00 p.m. Additional details will be shared with registered attendees.