Agustina Vergara CidThe COVID-19 pandemic is unlike anything many of us have experienced before. People are self-isolating and practicing social distancing, businesses are closing, and events are being canceled. We, at ARI, have been affected as well.
We were set to hold one of our AynRandCon conferences in Philadelphia on March 14. Due to concerns over the spread of the coronavirus, we decided to cancel the event.
But we weren’t going to let that stop us from pursuing our mission to bring Ayn Rand’s ideas to the public, so we decided to look for an alternative.
We held our first-ever online conference, and it was a great success!
More than two thousand people, across all of our social media platforms, watched live as ARI experts Onkar Ghate, Elan Journo and Yaron Brook delivered the same content they were set to deliver in Philadelphia — but viewers watched from the comfort of their own homes. The conference was free and open to the public, and it drew attendees from all over the world, including Italy and South Korea, two of the countries most affected by this pandemic.
Ghate, Journo and Brook delivered talks titled “Reason, Purpose, Self-Esteem: Keys to a Better Life and Society,” “The Virtue of Selfishness and the Evil of Altruism,” and “Capitalism: The System of Individual Rights,” respectively. The talks were followed by a general Q&A session with all three speakers where attendees had their questions answered. Many of the questions, understandably, involved issues related to the coronavirus outbreak, concerning, for example, the proper role of government during a pandemic.The reception by our audience was so overwhelmingly positive that we’re considering offering the conference again online in place of our planned AynRandCon–Chicago event, currently scheduled for April 18.
We are proud to have acted so quickly to make this conference happen during this unprecedented time, and we will continue to bring our audiences quality content now and after this pandemic is over. Please help us keep up this work by donating here.
Watch our first-ever AynRandCon-Live, in full, on the link below:
Audio only:
Subscribe to New Ideal to receive the latest in-depth content from ARI.
Readers seeking a superior print result may wish to download the free Just Read app.
Ziemowit Gowin
Itamar Feldman
