Melbourne Forum gives you access to the highest level of expertise and real-world lessons that our conversation leaders – all with a reputation for excellence – bring to the table under the Chatham House rule.
2021 will see Melbourne Forum offer a stimulating range of face-to-face and virtual events featuring eminent experts from differing specialties, both national and international. Our thought-provoking member-only interest groups enhance how we learn and exchange ideas.

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February 2021
What Is To Be Done
Members Lunch with the Hon Dr Barry Jones AC
Hosted by Prof Ian Dunn AM
"We have to be optimistic that we will have the wisdom, courage and skill to save the planet, but we are running out of time. While Biden’s election is welcome, populism, nationalism, retail politics and vested interest are powerful forces, and Australia is playing a…
Find out more »Disruptive Social Media
A Melbourne Forum Online Interest Group: The Non-Fiction Book
Hosted by Peter Lamell
Why does fake news spread faster than the truth? Do products and ideas become popular because they are good or because they are rated highly online? How does influence actually work and what does it mean to be influential? Which strategies and tactics can help…
Find out more »March 2021
China’s Strategy and Australia’s Future
A Melbourne Forum Online Interest Group: The Non-Fiction Book
Hosted by Peter Lamell
‘China’s Grand Strategy and Australia’s Future in the New Global Order’ draws on insights from Australia's former ambassador to China, Geoff Raby, on Australia's future position in global affairs. Disruption has blown the old world apart. The rise of China, Trump’s America First policies, division within…
Find out more »A Gift For You, Our Members
Memberships Extended To 31 March 2021
Hosted by
As a ‘thank you’ to all our current members for your support and engagement during what has been a disruptive year, we are delighted to offer a gift to all current members of three months complimentary membership by extending the approaching renewal date from December 2020 to…
Find out more »May 2021
Could This Be The End Of Our Planet?!
A Melbourne Forum Online Interest Group: The Non-Fiction Book
Hosted by Peter Lamell
Given the global sustainability, environmental and governance challenges we now face, what on earth can any of us do? The following two books gives us an opportunity to find practical and even inspiring ideas for what we can actually do to help humanity thrive on this –…
Find out more »June 2021
The India Way
A Melbourne Forum Online Interest Group: The Non-Fiction Book
Hosted by Peter Lamell
The world order is changing. The decade from the 2008 global financial crisis to the 2020 coronavirus pandemic has seen a real transformation. The very nature of international relations and its rules are changing before our eyes. In The India Way: Strategies For An Uncertain…
Find out more »July 2021
Politics of Care or Fear?
A Melbourne Forum Online Interest Group: The Non-Fiction Book
Hosted by Peter Lamell
Will Australia be a country of concern and care or will it be shaped by a politics of fear? In this original essay, Care and fear: the new politics (Quarterly Essay, June 2021) George Megalogenis explains what we know about recessions and unemployment and how governments should…
Find out more »September 2021
Digital Transformation
A Melbourne Forum Online Interest Group: The Non-Fiction Book
Hosted by Peter Lamell
Visionary Silicon Valley entrepreneur Tom Siebel presents a penetrating examination of the new technologies that are disrupting business and government—and how organisations can harness them to transform into digital enterprises. The confluence of four technologies—elastic cloud computing, big data, artificial intelligence, and the internet of…
Find out more »October 2021
Power of Belief
A Melbourne Forum Online Interest Group: The Non-Fiction Book
Hosted by Peter Lamell
What do we believe? Who do we believe? Why do we believe? From award-winning author Sarah Krasnostein comes an exploration of the power of belief. To write The Believer: Encounters with love, death & faith (Text Publishing, March 2021) she spent the last four years…
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