The Grano Speaker Series
The Grano Speakers Series was established as a modern-day salon: a smaller, more
intimate gathering where thought leaders in business, government, academia and the media can meet to discuss world events.
The Grano Series takes place at Toronto’s Grano restaurant under the proprietorship of Roberto Martella. Grano’s intimate atmosphere provides a perfect combination of informal dining with an energetic atmosphere for debate and discussion.
The Atlantic Institute for Market Studies is again a partner in what is called the most influential speakers’ series in the country.
All events are by invitation only.
The theme for the 2006-2007 series is Whither Europe? With the collapse of the Soviet Union, some thought, or hoped, Europe would become the counterweight to U.S. global dominance. Rather than gain influence, Europe seems in the grips of an internal crisis. From permanent under-employment, an aging population, labour strife to growing Islamic radicalism, terrorism and failed immigration policies, Brussels’s grand vision seems under threat as never before. What are the sources of Europe’s current troubles? Can the continent bounce back? And what would the decline of Europe’s power and status mean for the rest of the world?
The first speaker in this series was Aayan Hirsi Ali, an outspoken critic of fundamentalist Islam and its treatment of women, and a Resident Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington D.C. Bernard-Henri Levy, one of France’s most popular philosophers, journalists and filmmakers was the second speaker in this season’s series. The final two speakers for 2006-07 are Anne Applebaum, the Pulitzer Prize winning author of Gulag: A History and a columnist for The Washington Post; and American literary icon Gore Vidal.
The Grano Series is organized privately by Rudyard Griffiths and Patrick Luciani, and is registered in Ontario under the name Garda Productions.
Click here to learn more about the 2005-06 Grano Speaker Series.
Click here to read more about the inaugural 2004-05 Grano Series