Let me know what you think

We've had an amazing week of lectures.

On Monday American academic Scott Page explained the thesis of his book 'The Difference'; how the power of diversity creates better groups, firms, schools and societies.

On Tuesday the Great Room was packed and the overflow room put in use as we listened to Nassim Nicholas Taleb talk about his book the 'Black Swan'. His thesis that unpredictable events are much more important than we recognize has been widely discussed in radio programmes and newspaper columns.

On Thursday we discussed 'Who is the Zeitgeist novelist of the Blair era' with novelist Blake Morrison and dignitaries from the world of publishing.

And on Thursday evening we hosted the Mind Gym awards with the authors of the best selling Mind Gym books handing our awards for practical and innovative research into how we might be happier and more effective people.

Over the week upwards of 800 people have been here in person to be entertained and provoked, plus the thousands of others downloading lectures and subscribing to podcasts from our website.

And this is on top of the packed conference on our Opening Minds conference last week.

The RSA can be justly proud of its London lecture programme but we should do more to replicate this around the country.

Last week I met with our Regional Chairs. It was a very useful meeting with a group of committed volunteers working hard to raise the RSA's membership and profile.

It isn't easy if you are covering a huge region but I want to work with the Regional Committees to aim ever higher in the quality and content of our programme outside London.

There is a lazy, and inaccurate, perception of the RSA as being about day time visits to stately homes. But while most regions have a much richer diary of events, we need our social and cultural activities to be just the icing on the cake of an ambitious programme of speakers, debates and activities like the Coffee House Challenge.

This means we need to look to providing extra administrative back up to the regions and nations and this is something we plan to do. There is a real feeling in London circles that the RSA is going places, let's see what we can do to create that feeling across the UK.

When I first started this blog I said that it was a regular chance for me to chat to Fellows and get conversations and ideas flowing across the Fellowship. Let me know what ideas you have, what your thoughts are, or any comments you might have on the regions, the RSA, or the Fellowship.