World-class speakers
How do you persuade one of the world's best speakers to spend an evening talking to you and your friends?
From Sir Roger Penrose to Charles Clarke, an impressive array of individuals have already visited Pembroke this year. Four current students explain how they sought and secured speakers for their society events.
Pembroke Politics Society was only formed in 2013 and yet has already hosted a number of impressive speakers including former Home Secretary Charles Clarke and Lindsey Hilsum, International Editor for Channel 4. Rhianna Ilube (2012) explains:
‘I am a politics student and in my first year I went to lots of events run by the politics societies at Trinity and Clare. I thought that Pembroke needed its own version, so I decided to set one up with a friend. For our launch event we asked the Master, Sir Richard Dearlove, to speak. Over 100 people came, so that seemed like a success! Then, through a family connection, I was able to get in touch with Sir Alan Munro, former UK Ambassador to Saudi Arabia. He was so friendly and really keen to come and speak. He told us about his career as a diplomat and answered questions on contemporary Middle East issues. We ran the event in association with the University’s Middle East Society and again we had over 100 people show up – we were rushing around to get more chairs and ended up having to turn people away. Now we’re hoping that one of our supervisors who studies Kurdistan might be able to help us invite the Iraqi Ambassador. That really would be a first for us.’
See @PemPolitics on Twitter
The Ivory Tower Society is a ‘society for the discussion of everything’ run by Pembroke’s graduates. President Mark Nelson (2012) lives directly above Cambridge institution Fitzbillies and was keen to invite the owners to speak. He writes:
‘Fitzbillies, beloved Cambridge bakery and restaurant, was struggling for life at the end of the 2000s and the great recession delivered the coup de grâce. Pembroke College, the landlords of the famous location at the corners of Trumpington Street and Pembroke Street, began the process of finding new management that could restore Fitzbillies to successful operation. Enter husband-and-wife team Tim Hayward and Alison Wright who renovated and innovated. I am a Fitzbillies fan; I typically visit when I have guests to the city, or when I need a quick coffee. I saw Tim Hayward in the shop one day, and having recognized him from the news clippings in the back of the restaurant, introduced myself. They agreed to come and share with us their trials and tribulations as they resurrected the Cambridge institution we know and love. And there was even a chance to taste the wares!’
See www.srcf.ucam.org/ivorytower
The Stokes Society is one of the oldest Pembroke societies still running, having been founded in 1909. Although it is Pembroke’s science society, it is ‘not just for Pembroke and not just for scientists’. The society runs an event every week during Michaelmas and Lent with an exciting mix of speakers. President Cameron Dashwood (2013) and Speakers Officer Will Gayne (2013) say:
‘We emailed almost 100 people over the summer inviting them to speak. We were told to expect only a third to reply, but the rate has actually been much better than that. Lots of the speakers are enthusiastic and very willing to come, even though their payment is in the form of Formal Hall. We’re also lucky that so many fascinating scientists are based in Cambridge, which makes the logistics a bit easier to arrange. We search for speakers by looking online for people who we think might be interesting and try to make sure that we end up with an eclectic mix.
'For our first talk we had arranged for Cambridge academic Dr Peter Walsh to speak on Ebola. Suddenly the issue flared up and turned from being topical to being red hot. It was at the front of everyone’s minds and on the night we had queues outside the door. The next week we had Professor Sanjeev Gupta who was speaking on Mars. We had a bit of a disaster because the projector died and so he couldn’t show any of his images. However, he was really nice about it. Instead, he just ad-libbed and spoke from his own personal experience; it made the whole event seem much more intimate. He was so pleased with the response that he said he might even try to give the same talk again in the future. Later in the term we had the famous mathematical physicist Sir Roger Penrose. When we initially emailed him we were sceptical that he would come. However, he told us that he would be in Cambridge anyway one Wednesday during Michaelmas and so it worked out really well. We knew he would be popular and so moved the event to a larger room – and even then it was absolutely packed. Our big project for this term is working on a panel discussion about women in science in collaboration with PemWomen@30. Getting four high-calibre academics in one place at one time is not something we’ve tried before and it is certainly proving to be a challenge!’