Broadcast: News items

The recording of the third highly successful Sussex Conversation, which took place at the Royal Institution in London on 19 January, is now available to be watched on the Sussex website. 

The discussion on Culture and Heritage was chaired by Sir Vernon Ellis, Chair of both the British Council and English National Opera. 

The speakers on the panel were Dame Fiona Reynolds, Director-General of the National Trust; Sir Neil Cossons, Pro-Provost of the Royal College of Art; and Ekow Eshun, former Director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts. 

Professor Maurice Howard, Professor Peter Boxall and Professor Sally-Jane Norman were the respondents from the University. 

Drawn by the quality of the participants and the prospect of engaging debate, journalists from the Times Higher and Guardian were in an audience of hundreds and reported on a wide-ranging discussion across the role of arts and culture in modern society.

Thanks to stage management, filming and sound recording by a team of Sussex students led by Dr Phill Watten, who heads the Media Technology Lab in Informatics, the events were broadcast live.

With hundreds engaged in the Conversation at the Royal Institution, others watched live on the web and fed in their comments and questions via Twitter.

The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Michael Farthing, who introduces each event, said: “These events provide a remarkable experience for our students – who help to deliver a high-quality live broadcast on the web, which I believe to be the equal of anything being done in higher education in the UK today. The final recorded version is little different from the live experience, and is testimony to the quality of the work they have done.”

The events are organised and managed by the Development and Alumni Relations Office as part of the celebration of the University’s 50^th anniversary. Three more Conversations remain in the six-strong series, each of which is based on one of the Sussex research themes.

Recordings of all the Sussex Conversations so far and details of the next three are available at www.sussex.ac.uk/fiftyyears/sussexconversations