Considering heading to The Atlantic Festival? Sharing my experience attending the 2024 festival in Washington, DC!
Earlier this year, my friend Casey sent me a text asking if I wanted to go to The Atlantic Festival. Honestly, I had no idea what it was, but I knew I loved reading The Atlantic, so I said “sure!” At that point, I didn’t even know what to expect, but since it was practically right in my backyard (held this year at The Wharf here in D.C.) it was an easy yes. Plus, it was guaranteed time spent with my bestie – I had nothing to lose!
The Atlantic Festival 2024 in Washington, DC
I will be honest and say that nothing about registering for the conference felt intuitive. The process to buy tickets and navigating sessions, for whatever reason, wasn’t super straightforward. As in, it took both me and Casey clicking around for a good bit to figure out where everything was so we could log in, then read about what to expect. It was a small hiccup in the grand scheme, to be honest, because the speaker line-up was great! The theme of the festival was “Great Minds That Don’t Think Alike”
What Is The Atlantic Festival?
“A two-day event where attendees can explore today’s most consequential questions through interviews, screenings, book talks, networking, and more, pairing Atlantic journalists with the world’s most influential thinkers.”
This year, speakers included: Jamie Dimon (CEO of JPMorgan Chase), Ketanji Brown Jackson (U.S. Supreme Court Justice), Gretchen Whitmer (Governor of Michigan), Hakeem Jeffries (Democratic Leader), Kellyanne Conway (Political consultant and analyst), Karl Rove (Political consultant and analyst), Pete Buttigieg (Secretary of U.S. Dept of Transportation), David Ko (CEO of Calm), Rachel Levine (Admiral of U.S. Public Health Service), Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas (U.S. Dept of Homeland Security), Tim Miller (Writer at The Bulwark), Liane Moriarty (author), Nancy Pelosi (former Speaker of the House), and so many more.
Each day before the two large keynote sessions (morning and afternoon), there were catered breakfast and lunch foods available, which was a nice touch. There were also plenty of stations to refill water bottles and each day included a happy hour event on the pier, which was beautiful. Admittedly, if the weather was bad (it was forecasted to downpour!), this event may have proved to be slightly annoying, because it required walking up and down The Wharf to get to various stages, but that wasn’t the case for us and the weather was perfect.
The two-day festival is divided into 1-2 hour blocks for sessions that range from the future of mental health for kids to what to expect in the upcoming election (seriously, the range was impressive) and you needed to register for each session prior to the start of the festival, with some sessions (the ones with more well known speakers) filling to capacity fast.
Now, here is where I have my one complaint of the entire festival. It was required to register for sessions prior to the start of the festival, so if you registered you were in, right? Wrong. The venues for the various sessions were chosen poorly (in my opinion), because even if you registered and arrived early (we were there 30 minutes early on day 1), you still weren’t guaranteed a seat, because the spaces were simply too small for the crowd that had showed up. We wound up in overflow in one room watching it streamed on a TV. This felt like a bummer, because we could watch this on TV at home and had paid to be there live. We learned our lesson on day 2 and arrived more than an hour early for the sessions we really wanted to see. My point is – if you have people register for a session, it indicates there is a guaranteed spot for them to attend. If that’s not the case, it needs to be explained thoroughly to arrive early and/or choose a better venue. End rant.
Is The Atlantic Festival Worth Attending?
Even with the hiccup in scheduling, it was a wonderful 2-day event and I’m so glad we went. The speakers they chose were thoughtful, the conversations were insightful, and it definitely matched the theme of listening to others who don’t share your same opinion. If you’re on the fence about whether to attend future Atlantic Festival events, I cannot recommend it enough. It’s even better attending with a friend 🙂
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