Chillin'Competition

The 3^rd edition of the Chillin’Competition Conference is poised to be greatest event in the history of law. Well, that may have been an understatement…

The program is below. And here are 10 things you should know about it:

1)      The program features names, but it does not say much about substantive content. That is because we want to give speakers freedom to talk about the most interesting stuff they have to say. By the way, we are enormously grateful to all of them, particularly to Commissioner Vestager.

2)      We will be striving to foster conversations rather than the usual monologues to which you may have grown accustomed at other conferences, and we will even be having Ted @Chillin’Competition talks (if any IP expert reads this, please let me know whether crossing the word does the trick). This is supposed to be an interactive, dynamic and chilled debate; tough job for moderators and speakers, but surely good news for attendees.

3)      This time, and together with the big names of today, we have also invited some relatively new faces (they are the big names of tomorrow, so you better get used to them!).

4)      We have found a new and pretty original venue “Area 42”, not far from the Madou tower; we hope you’ll like it as much as we do.

5)      One of the reasons for switching venue is that other places “bundle” the catering. It was important for us to have the freedom to have the catering done by “We Exist”.

6)      “We Exist” is an NGO, created by and for Syrian refugees, with whom we have cooperated in the past, so expect some Syrian delicacies.  Even if you can’t make it to the conference you can participate in their events, or support their crowdfunding campaign to buy a food truck.

7)      The conference remains free. That is all thanks to our sponsors (to be announced soon).

8)      Every attendee will receive a special gift from Chillin’Competition (that is, if the shipment from China arrives on time and without major damage).

9)      Unfortunately, we won’t be able to fit in more than 270 people…

10)  Registrations open on Monday 25 September at 10am via a link that we will be posting on the blog at exactly that time.

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THE CHILLIN’COMPETITION CONFERENCE

25 October 2017 (Area42, Rue des Palais 46, Brussels)

9-9.45: Registration and coffee

9.45-10: Introduction- A Year in Review 

Alfonso Lamadrid (Garrigues and Chillin’Competition)

10-11.15: Competition Law Everywhere?

Pascale Déchamps (Oxera)

Kyriakos Fountoukakos (Herbert Smith Freehills)

Damien Geradin (EUCLID)

Sascha Schubert (Freshfields)

Moderator: Kevin Coates (Covington&Burling)

11.15–12.30: The Real Center Stage

Beatriz de Guindos (Comisión Nacional de los Mercados y la Competencia)

Philip Marsden (Competition and Markets Authority)

Jacqueline Riffault-Silk (Cour de Cassation)

Eddy de Smijter (European Commission)

Jacques Steenbergen (Belgian Competition Authority)

Moderator: Niall Collins (Mason Hayes & Curran)

12.30-14: Syrian Lunch by the NGO “We Exist”

14-15: Ted@Chillin’Competition

Pablo Ibañez Colomo (LSE, College of Europe and Chillin’Competition)

Kai-Uwe Kühn (University of East Anglia and CRA)

Miguel de la Mano (Compass Lexecon)

Mark Powell (White&Case)

Antoine Winckler (Cleary Gottlieb)

15-15.45: Keynote by Commissioner Vestager

15.45-16: Coffee

16-17.30 Mergers and Disquisitions

Gavin Bushell (Baker&McKenzie)

Catriona Hatton (Baker Botts)

Adrian Majumdar (RBB)

Michele Piergiovanni (European Commission)

Moderators: Susana Cabrera (Garrigues) and Paul McGeown (Wilson Sonsini)

17.30-19 Looking Ahead

Luca Crocco (Latham&Watkins)

Natura Gracia (Linklaters)

Pola Karolzcyk (Sidley Austin)

Jürgen Schindler (Allen&Overy)

Gianni de Stefano (Hogan Lovells)

Moderator: Peter Alexiadis (Gibson Dunn)

19 Onwards: Wine Tasting (and Pairing)