12:00 PM - 8:00 PM

ATTENDEE & EXHIBITOR CHECK-IN

2:00 PM - 4:00 PM

PRE-CONFERENCE ACTIVITY FOR VIP TICKETHOLDERS

5:00 PM - 8:00 PM

WELCOME RECEPTION

Featuring remarks by FIRE President & CEO Greg Lukianoff and special guest appearances and entertainment

8:00 AM - 9:00 AM

EMBER CLUB BREAKFAST

Members of FIRE’s Ember Club are invited to gather for a private breakfast featuring FIRE President & CEO Greg Lukianoff

9:15 AM - 9:30 AM

OFFICIAL CONFERENCE WELCOME BY GREG LUKIANOFF

9:30 AM - 10:00 AM

OPENING KEYNOTE

The Fight for Free Speech by FIRE’s Executive Vice President Nico Perrino

10:45 AM - 11:45 AM

BREAKOUT SESSIONS BLOCK 1

Choose between sessions including: Viewpoint Diversity in the Academy, Emerging First Amendment Trends, the Neuroscience of Free Speech, and Regulating AI without Regulating Speech

12:00 PM - 1:30 PM

LUNCH KEYNOTE

Come enjoy lunch and a FIREside chat featuring Editor-at-Large of Reason Magazine, Nick Gillespie in conversation with author and journalist, Matt Taibbi

2:15 PM - 3:15 PM

BREAKOUT SESSIONS BLOCK 2

Choose between sessions including: The Future of Free Speech Online, Universities at a Crossroads, and a live podcast recording of Advisory Opinions with Sarah Isgur and David French

3:45 PM - 4:45 PM

BREAKOUT SESSIONS BLOCK 3

Choose between sessions including: Innovative Information Institutions, Executive Power and the First Amendment, and Defending the “Indefensible”

5:15 PM - 6:15 PM

CONCLUDING KEYNOTE

Join us for remarks from Lenore Skenazy before we dig into a discussion on “Obscenity, Offense, and Free Speech” featuring the founder of SPIN Magazine, Bob Guccione Jr. interviewed by the Comedy Cellar owner, Noam Dworman

8:00 AM - 9:00 AM

PHILANTHROPY IS FREE SPEECH BREAKFAST

Join us for a seated breakfast hosted by DonorsTrust, with a panel conversation on the relationship between philanthropy and free speech

9:00 AM - 9:45 AM

OPENING KEYNOTE

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 AM - 11:15 AM

BREAKOUT SESSIONS BLOCK 1

Choose between sessions including: Revolutionary Rights: How Free Speech Forged America, Defamation vs. the First Amendment, and Who Holds Cultural Power?

11:30 AM - 12:30 PM

BREAKOUT SESSIONS BLOCK 2

Choose between sessions including: 20th Century Free Speech Struggles, The Global Censorship Campaign, and How to Reverse the Free Speech Recession

12:30 PM - 1:45 PM

VIP LUNCH

All Soapbox VIP ticketholders are invited to enjoy a special lunch

2:15 PM - 4:00 PM

LIVE PODCAST & CONFERENCE CLOSING

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?” and closing remarks from FIRE leadership

6:00 PM - 11:00 PM

THE SOAPBOX GALA

Reception from 6:00-7:00 PM, dinner from 7:00-9:30 PM, afterparty until 11:00 PM

We hope all Soapbox conference attendees will purchase tickets to attend the big finale: the Soapbox Gala. 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.