Earlier festivals were dedicated to a prominent South Australian who has had a significant impact on the development of ideas across a wide range of domains, be they geographical, intellectual, cultural or social.
[citation needed] The Adelaide Festival of Ideas offers intellectual debate across conventional boundaries and demarcations of disciplines, agendas and cultural norms with the aim of challenging the fragmentation of public knowledge.
[4] The 2018 festival ran for three days in July,[5][6][7][8][9] featuring Robyn Archer,[9] former president of the Australian Human Rights Commission Gillian Triggs,[10] language revivalist Ghil'ad Zuckermann,[11][7] historian Stuart Macintyre[7] and author Benjamin Law.
[15] The 2009 AFOI looked a range of issues relating to "the power and consequences of the ethic of exploration and expansion which shaped, and perhaps risked, the modern world".
It was dedicated to prominent lawyer and social activist, Sir Ronald Wilson AC KBE CMG QC.
[20] The inaugural AFOI examined a diverse range of topics: international relations, including the changing nature of community, truth in the media, the notion of good and evil, and the potential of new technologies.