WEDNESDAY 18 DECEMBER
MEDIA RELEASE: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
First Speakers Announced For Aspiring Conversations 2020
WANAKA
3-5 APRIL 2020
Marilyn Waring and Chloe Swarbrick have been the two youngest members of Parliament in the past 100 years. The pair are
the first speakers to be announced for Wanaka's biennial Aspiring Conversations festival of ideas taking place in April
2020.
Aspiring Conversations 2020 takes place in Wanaka from Friday 3 to Sunday 5 April and features 11 events with
high-calibre speakers, writers and thinkers discussing and debating the issues of today.
Swarbrick and Waring feature in the festival’s opening event session New Kids on the Block and will discuss their
experiences of political life and what has changed, and what hasn’t, in the years across their terms in Parliament.
New for 2020 is the Streetside Soapbox – Big Issues, Short Talks with a line-up of quickfire soapbox talks and slam
poetry on the pavement in central Wanaka.
The full programme for Aspiring Conversations 2020 will be announced on Monday 3 February, but festival director Philip
Tremewan says the programme reflects the issues which are most pressing today and promises to be entertaining and
inspiring.
“We have a range of speakers this year who have real expertise in their fields – from politics to history, taxation to
music, and fake news to the climate crisis."
Aspiring Conversations takes place at the Lake Wanaka Centre from Friday 3 to Sunday 5 April. Tickets for the Festival
will be on sale from Friday 14 February throughwww.aspiringconversations.co.
Aspiring Conversations is presented by the Southern Lakes Arts Festival Trust and is sponsored by Milford Asset
Management and is presented in association with McKinsey & Company. The festival is supported through grants from Creative New Zealand, Central Lakes Trust, Otago Community
Trust, and Queenstown Lakes District Council.
ENDS