WILTON PARK CONFERENCE CENTRE Our conferences started in January 1946. They were held first at Wilton Park, Beaconsfield. Originally Anglo-German gatherings, seeking to recreate and encourage civilisation and democracy within and among the war-torn nations of Western Europe, they have developed gradually into broadly international conferences. Membership is today drawn from the 25 countries of OECD, and from a wide range of professions, backgrounds and political persuasions. Since 1950 we have been based in Wiston House, Steyning - a 16th century mansion with 20th century amenities. Conferences are residential. We run nine or ten conferences per year, mostly of two weeks. We offer at each a programme of 14-16 plenary sessions (opened by authoritative outside speakers), brains trusts, small unstructured discussion groups, and visits to London and other places of industrial, cultural and social interest. As far as possible participants live inside Wiston House. Wives or husbands are welcome to accompany participants. Average participation is around 30/40 per conference. We work in English, French and German, with simultaneous interpretation at plenary sessions. Our fee is currently £150 per person (£75 for a one-week conference); this covers all board and lodging, attendance at all sessions, and for the participant him- or herself the cost of extra-mural visits. We are determinedly generalist in spirit. We seek to combat narrow specialisation, widen horizons, stretch minds and dent prejudices. We tackle a wide range of problems in breadth, rather than just one or two in depth. We work by cross-fertilisation and the interaction of people's opinions, backgrounds and personal education. We do not aim to teach - though certainly much good factual knowledge is put across. We do no professional research, publish no books, prepare no learned papers. We pass no resolutions. But a Wilton Park conference is a genuinely re-creative experience - intellectually challenging, truly informative, and a lesson in mutual understanding. During sessions all comments, questions and discussion are privileged and off the record. No remark may be repeated outside Wiston House without the express permission of its author. This allows invited speakers and participants to speak freely and frankly. Members of conferences represent only themselves, as responsible individual citizens, and never any country or body. Not surprisingly, people when first approached say they cannot spare two weeks from their work. But we seek precisely those busy and important people whose time is so valuable. (And over 15,000 have been here since 1946). The whole ethos and method of Wilton Park requires participants, as concerned citizens and "amateurs éclairés", to live together for 14 days, intensively discussing and examining the burning problems of the moment. Do not compare us to a specialist 48-hour seminar organised by an eminent research institute or a leading business school. Think of us rather as a creative pause in mid-career, a sabbatical compressed into a fortnight. IV/AGH/khs/18.2.77
