Freedom Games?!? Freedom is not to be played with! But you have to fight for it. Trip over. Argue. Discuss. Raise issues. Question status quo. Develop theories. Reach for ideas. Chase dreams.

Freedom Games are an interdisciplinary forum of ideas organized with the goal of offering a creative space for meetings of people of culture, business, and public life. Since 2014, it has been an arena for discussing the most important challenges facing Western societies in the 21st century. Our guests are outstanding intellectuals and opinion leaders of the world class: leading politicians and representatives of non-governmental organizations, artists and activists, scientists, and business people.

Support democratic dialogue for freedom, equality, and development! We will allocate the collected funds to the implementation of the next edition of the forum.

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Thank you for all your help and support!

The Freedom Games Team

1. Watch live individual events from the PROGRAM.

2. Watch live via Facebook (ENG): 4LIBERTY.EU.

In light of a growing pandemic and new restrictions, Freedom Games 2020 shall be held on November 13-15, 2020, in a hybrid format. We are, however, prepared for any scenario due to the further development of the epidemic situation.

If the current regulations (yellow zone) are be in force in mid-November, then, adopting strict safety and social distancing restrictions, Freedom Games will allow attendance by a very limited number of participants in accordance with the applicable regulations.

The pandemic cannot stop the debate, curiosity to understand the world, talking about ideas, just like it cannot break social ties. At the same time, we must act in such a way so as to ensure that each and every one of you, our guests and speakers can choose the type of participation with the maximum level of safety.

For those of you who decide to buy a ticket for the Freedom Games, we guarantee a refund if participation in the forum turns out impossible due to epidemic-related restrictions. Perhaps some of you, while participating in the online event, will recognize that our work has value, and then you can always decide to donate the funds from the purchased ticket to the next year’s edition of the Freedom Games. Such support will be more than needed for us in the next difficult months, just like it is the case for many other cultural and social institutions.

We have decided that this year all discussions during Freedom Games will be available online live without any fees or registration. We want as many of you to be able to participate in the Freedom Games – at least remotely – and listen to the group of exceptional guests who will speak during this edition. This is our educational mission.

As part of five professionally broadcast channels, including two additional ones with simultaneous Polish/English translation, we intend to create symbolic New Public Media, showing which topics should be dealt with in an attractive and substantive way by the public media, including in particular the Polish public television. Instead of constantly debating how the public media should look like, we – as part of Freedom Games – want to sinply show it.

Stay safe and inspired,

Freedom Games 2020 Team

Join the group of volunteers who will work hand in hand with the organizers during Freedom Games 2020, so that this year’s edition of the event is second to none!

Join a Facebook Event

Who are we looking for?
People of all ages, with knowledge of English (communicative level or higher), sociable, responsible, creative, flexible, as well as entrepreneurial and well-organized.

Availability
During this year’s edition, i.e. November 13-15, 2020.

We are looking for volunteers to help in the following areas:

• reception service;
• audience and hall service;
• special guests service.

Often, however, the functions of individual areas overlap, so we appreciate flexibility and the ability to react to unusual situations.

Why is it worth it?
Freedom Games are a unique, interdisciplinary forum enabling exchange of ideas between intellectuals and artists. It is a unique opportunity to meet high-profile figures from the world of politics, economy, the media, human rights, music, and art. Moreover, each volunteer will receive a certificate confirming their involvement in the organization of the event. Completing a student internship while volunteering is also possible.

We do not provide refunds for travel and accommodation costs.

(!) Application deadline: October 7, 2020, 23:59. After recruitment, we will invite selected people for an interview during which we shall explain the specificity of the event and the scope of assigned responsibilities.

How to become a volunteer?
To become a volunteer, fill out an online form, which shall be available until October 7, 2020. We will conduct interviews with selected candidates. In the application form, please specify your availability during the forum and verifyyour contact details.

FILL IN THE ONLINE FORM

As in previous years, we also invite seniors to cooperation. We would also like to remind you that a minor who has reached the age of 16 may become a volunteer, but must submit a written consent from the parent or a legal guardian, no later than on the day of commencement of volunteering at the forum.

Those who already were volunteers during Freedom Games 2019 or previous editions do not need to fill in the online form. In this case, please contact the volunteer coordinator directly by e-mail, indicating your availability during the forum and the service area you are most interested in: okrajewska@liberte.pl.

Contact
Volunteer Coordinator: Ola Krajewska
If you have any questions, please contact: okrajewska@liberte.pl

If you are a student of a secondary school (high school, technical secondary school, vocational school, etc.), you are entitled to free participation in this year’s forum. Find out how to get it in the High School Students tab at FG2020 and take part in an amazing forum of ideas organized in the heart of Poland!

The seventh edition of Freedom Games is to be held on November 13-15, 2020, in Hala Expo in Lodz and online.

This year, as a result of the restrictions imposed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which may be difficult to predict in anticipation of November, the forum shall be held in a mixed format.

The forum will still remain open and available to participants in the conference area as much as possible in light of imposed safety measures. The events and sessions shall be also available online via live streaming.

This year’s edition will most likely not feature any music concerts.

Hala Expo is a modern multi-function building located in the Lodz city center. It is a space equipped to offer professional execution of various types of events and a perfect place for networking.

The leading topic of this year’s edition of Freedom Games is “A Post-Pandemic World”. The COVID-19 pandemic has become a planet-wide event of an unprecedented scale. In just a few months, the coronavirus killed hundreds of thousands of people, millions have been infected. The majority of global economies have been shut down. The lockdown has affected almost 2.7 billion of employees, which constitutes approximately 81% of global workforce. Since the beginning of the pandemic, over 40 million Americans applied for the unemployment benefit. This is situation worse than even in the case of Great Depression.

This is why it is worth using these strange times to reflect and talk things over, in an attempt to set a new course for the “new normal” in a post-pandemic world. COVID-19 acts as a global stress-test. On how well do states and their institutions pass depends not only their global standing, but also whether citizens will trust them. The time for evaluation is yet to come – after the first peak incidence decreases, the governments should be able to confront the unprecedented economic crisis. How will our everyday lives change (work, leisure, entertainment, private life)? What will move permanently online, and what will still be considered worth appearing in person for?

In the age of big data, will democracy fall short of an efficient and ruthless Chinese model, as predicted by Yuval Harari, among others? COVID-19 has shown how important transparency is when it comes to the information that authorities have and how valuable trust of citizens in official statements is. Data reliability of Chinese statistics is questionable. Meanwhile, autocracies of the likes of Iran or Russia are doing as badly as the United Kingdom or the United States – the oldest democracies in the world.

Burdening the working youth with the cost of pandemic only to save the elderly, who in the “old” West have already managed to make for themselves a comfortable life, would be yet another injustice on top of the already existing ones. Labor market regulation and high taxation favor those who have already been operating on it. The youth, a group that now includes also people around 40, will likely struggle with the uncertainty of precarisation, impending debt, and the need to take risks – which many of them cannot afford. Next social rebellions in the countries with a growing unemployment rate among the youth are just a matter of time.

Will the challenges the humanity is now facing attract the youth and other individuals to be more involved in the public life? Is it possible that the current situation reveals a leadership that we need, and one which would be capable of creating an emotion that might show the link between a diagnosis and bold solutions? Are we humble enough to seek answers to the new questions and to take our fate into our own hands?