Annual conversation | In 2026 is curiosity our greatest power?

On the 12th of November, our annual conversation asks,

Is curiosity our greatest power?

Our flagship conversation brings our community together to explore this year’s question from different perspectives, across industries, markets, and experiences, to find many answers. 

Is curiosity our greatest tool, an asset not a value, to drive imagination and innovation, new commercial opportunities and deeper relationships, and how do we teach it, learn it or use it in business, policy, institutions, and community?

 

| The Curious Human

What does it really mean to be curious today? We start the conversation by exploring curiosity as a way of building relationships with the world, with other people, and with ourselves. What drives curiosity and what kills it, and what do we lose when we stop asking better questions?

 

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| The Conditions for Curiosity

Curiosity does not survive in every environment. This conversation explores the systems, institutions, and cultures that either create it or kill it in education, democracy, art, and the organisations we build and lead.

 

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| What Is It Worth?

Do we value curiosity, economically, politically or culturally? Can we measure it? What does it cost us, and where are we leaving money on the table by not having it? What is AI and the information economy doing to the incentive to be curious, and what organisations and societies lose when they optimise for certainty over inquiry?

 

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| Many Answers

Sarah gathers reflections and shares many answers and core solutions to how, in 2026 and beyond, we use conversation as a tool to drive value, not just a value.

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| Closing Drinks Reception

Following the conversation, we publish our annual critical-thinking piece, reflecting on it and enabling our community to develop their own answers to this One Question.

One Question conversations are held under the Chatham House Rule.

To learn more about our conversation or membership, please email us.