The Congif Members Evening, Lisbon

Guests arrive at a restored townhouse above the Alfama rooftops, where a host from the Congif programme team checks names at the door and hands out the evening's running order. The first hour is unstructured: drinks on the terrace, introductions made by the team rather than left to chance. At eight the room moves inside for three short stage conversations, twenty minutes each, drawn from the platform's current roster of fields. A break follows for a standing supper of Portuguese small plates. The final session is a question hour run from the floor, with the microphone passed rather than fixed. The terrace reopens afterwards and stays open until one, with a smaller bar and a resident selector playing. Members leave with the printed guest list.