Tacitus began in 1988 with the Tacitus Lecture, which has a long-established reputation for bringing leading speakers together to address the City of London on international trade.

Since in 2014, the Lecture has been followed by The Tacitus Debate, where the issues raised in the Lecture are further discussed by a panel of experts from business, public service, the media and education. The Tacitus Debate has welcomed a number of high profile figures, including Angela Knight; Jonathan Fried, Canadian Ambassador to the WTO; Martin Sandbu from the Economist and many more. Often the Tacitus Lecture speaker joins the panel, and this adds immensely to the breadth of discussion.

For the last few years, the Debate has been chaired by Lord Tim Clement-Jones, a World Trader himself who is now a member of the House of Lords. The first Debate was chaired by Alderman Professor Michael Mainelli, also a World Trader.

The purpose of the Debate is to widen discussion and allow opposing arguments to be heard, and reflects the World Traders’ focus on Education and on-going learning.

All opinions are the speakers’ own.