A 2023 roundup from Debate Club
Friday 5 January 2024
A happy new year from Tom, Jack and Suhail!
We trust that some of you reading this will have had some lively debates over the festive period, so what better time than now to look back at what Debate Club has been up to in 2023?
After a 2022 full of in-house debates at Co-op, we set ourselves a goal of taking the format on the road in 2023.
And we succeeded. In fact, we ended up taking Debate Club international (sort of).
More on that in a moment, but let’s take it from the top…
Co-op All Design (February)
Our first debate of the year was held in one of Co-op’s ‘All Design’ sessions, where we get all of our design folk together.
Coming out of the bleakness of winter, we decided to ask an existential question: ‘Will artificial intelligence replace our jobs?’.
Our participants mulled over information on generative, robotics and rule-based AI, to see how it could replace (or in some cases already has replaced) human labour.
And this provocative subject didn’t disappoint. Themes in the debate included regulating AI, the question of plagiarism, and how it will change the way we work (for better as well as worse).
The debate was feisty. And it got us thinking that we just might use it again…
NUX Manchester (May)
We hosted the esteemed Northern User Experience (NUX) meet-up at Co-op HQ in May. And it was a great opportunity to introduce Debate Club to a wider audience.
The event took place shortly after Global Accessibility Awareness Day. So, on an accessibility themed evening, we asked the question: ‘Is accessibility a bigger priority than profit or business objectives?’
Following an impassioned talk from subject matter expert Gareth Ford-Williams, our tables broke off into smaller discussions around the topic.
And our friends in the UX community ensured a lively debate as we covered themes on:
- aesthetics v accessibility
- whether it should be a legal requirement
- its importance in determining SEO rankings
We had some rule-breakers who sat on the fence in the final vote, but certainly some opinions had been changed by the end!
One of our debate tables in full flow during the NUX debate (Image credit: Kat Durrant at I Shot This Event)
UX Scotland (June)
So, after Manchester we went international!
(Yes, even though we took a lovely scenic drive there, it was over the border so it counts as ‘international.’)
We took the format to the highly enjoyable 3-day UX Scotland conference in Edinburgh.
And as for the subject, we gave that lively artificial intelligence question a second spin.
This time we asked: ‘Will Artificial Intelligence have a positive or negative impact on our jobs?’
Our willing audience came from a range of different organisations and made some astute points.
In fact, as is often the sign of a good debate, the opinion in the opening vote had changed by the final vote - with the positive turning to a negative.
We had a great time at the conference, attending thought-provoking talks from Monzo, Samaritans, Atlassian and SPARCK among others.
It really showed the value of getting out there and meeting others.
Debaters in session at UX Scotland’s Dynamic Earth
We rounded off the year by bringing Debate Club back in-house with a Christmas special in collaboration with Co-op’s content community.
This time we debated the Marks & Spencer Christmas advert, asking: ‘Is “This Christmas do only what you love” a positive Christmas message from M&S?’
After watching the ad, our debaters went off into a couple of groups to talk about:
- how the audience affects the message
- how the organisation saying it affects its impact
- and simply: is the ad any good?
Again, we had so much back and forth that we had to cut the debate short. But not before the balance had swung in the final vote!
The M&S advert’s decision to throw a board game into a fish tank on Christmas Day was questionable for our debaters
Looking to 2024
In 2023 we’ve loved taking the format to a range of different audiences while covering several subjects.
We’d love to meet more people, cover different topics and get some plans in the diary for 2024.
If you or your organisation are interested in organising a Debate Club, please get in touch with us.
You can reach us via:
Looking forward to some more great conversations in 2024 😄
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