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The UK House Of Commons-Style Debate
SPARKS FLY AT EUROPABIO OPEN DAY
‘HOUSE OF COMMONS’ DEBATE
About 140 guests at EuropaBio’s
Open Day engaged in a partly
serious, partly playful debate
following a format resembling the
British House of Commons.
The room was divided in two – a
‘government’ faction and an
‘opposition’. with
‘prime-ministers’ and ‘opposition
leaders’ – i.e. participants
asked to defend or attack a motion
for about 2 minutes to ignite the
debate.
The debate was managed by moderator
Roderik Van Grieken, Director,
Netherlands Debate Institute.
All present physically participated
by moving to their preferred side of
the room, and many were asked to
voice their opinion and come up with
old or new arguments.
This debate also included a ‘Speaker
of the House’, EuropaBio Secretary
General Johan Vanhemelrijck,
controlling a gong that marks the
start and the end of the debates. At
the end, he named the best debater.
In the debate, four motions were
discussed. These motions were
intended to be provocative and were not expected
to be fully agreed or disagreed with
by most participants.
Their goal was to stir debate, and
from the debate nuance will follow.
Often, for instance, people said
that
they ‘only partly agree’ with a
motion, explaining where exactly
their problem is. That opened up
opportunities to explore those
nuances further.
The motions were:
To learn more about the contents of
the each motion of the debate click
on the links and also see:
EuropaBio would like to thank
Schuttelaar & Partners, the firm
managed the debate , for encouraging
a frank and friendly debate among
stakeholders on controversial
biotechnology issues. |
