The overarching theme of this year’s conference is “Testing the health of conditions for post-Brexit cooperation: The evolving political and social contexts”, and (as in previous years) we will have a range of key decision and policy-makers as well as leading civil society representatives from across the island of Ireland, Great Britain and Europe, exploring how we can maintain and strengthen relations in the challenging context of Brexit.

The Conference Keynote speakers will be

• Madeleine Alessandri | Permanent Secretary | Northern Ireland Office
• Paul Narain | US Consul General to Northern Ireland

Panel discussions will focus on

• the evolving political context(s) and how these may encourage (or not) cooperation and relations within and across these islands, as well as between these islands and the (rest of the) EU.
• the evolving social context(s) and how these may encourage (or not) cooperation and relations within and across these islands, as well as between these islands and the (rest of the) EU.
• the issue of designing policy and legislation that avoids creating obstacles to cross-border mobility (including cross-border working) and cooperation, and that exploits collaborative work approaches to address common challenges or to exploit opportunities.