Digital Roads Of the Future Debate 2024

This event has already happened

Wednesday 13 November 2024 4:30pm to 6:30pm

Cambridge Union, 9A Bridge Street, Cambridge CB2 1UB

About

We are excited to announce our Digital Roads of the Future Debate will take place at 16:30 on Wednesday, 13 November at the Cambridge Union's historic, and commanding, Debate Chamber here in Cambridge. 

The motion of the debate will be 

Road Infrastructure: this house believes that Digitalisation is the most effective pathway to Net-zero

Come and join our celebrated debate team in person at the Chamber at 16:30 or hop onto our YouTube channel at 17:00 where we will be streaming it live!

How does a debate work?

(with thanks to The Cambridge Union Society for the FAQs: Debating FAQs - The Cambridge Union (cus.org))

In every debate there is a motion: a statement, idea or policy that is disputed and framed within the prefix ‘This House’. Usually, the motion is either a policy which changes the status quo (e.g. This House Would Provide All Police Officers With Firearms) or a statement, the truth or falsehood of which is examined in the debate (e.g. This House Regrets the Decline of Marxism in Western Liberal Democracies). There are two sides to the debate: the government and the opposition. The government, also known as the proposition, supports the motion whilst the opposition opposes it. After the debate, the judges will decide which debaters were most persuasive.

Register: https://drf.eng.cam.ac.uk/digital-roads-future-debate-2024

The Running Order

  1. The Chair will open the debate by introducing the speakers.
  2. Each speaker will be given 7 minutes to make their argument. The first to speak will be the proposing 1st speaker, followed by a response by the opposing 1st speaker.
  3. The chair will then introduce the proposing 2nd speaker, followed by the opposing 2nd speaker.
  4. The debate will then be opened to speakers from the floor for 20 minutes, these speakers will be given one to two minutes for speeches or questions in proposition, opposition and abstention.
  5. The Chair will then return to the 3rd speaker for the proposition followed by the 3rd and final speaker from the opposition.

The audience are then called to vote, which in the Cambridge Debate Chamber we do with our feet by passing through the EYES door or the NOSE door or through the middle door to abstain. The votes are tallied and the winner announced by the Chair.