The Gaudie was invited to attend the Warwick Economics Summit 2026, hosted by the students of Warwick University.
The event was held from Friday the 6th of February to Sunday the 8th inside The Oculus Building on the Warwick University campus. Over 500 students were in attendance, coming from as far as Lebanon to attend the event.
The event had speakers come in from a wide range of professions, from chief economists of global banks to general secretaries of multi-national associations. There was a mixture of talks from world leaders in their sectors, to organised debates with groups of professionals, and seminars from government associations.
The Gaudie was awarded journalist passes for the weekend, allowing us to be at the front of the action with journalists from other student publications.
Additionally, we were invited to a ‘Meet the Speaker’ session, a small grouped discussion with a speaker. The Gaudie had the opportunity to attend one of the Meet the Speakers sessions with Vivky Pryce, former Head of the United Kingdom’s Government Economic Service. We also got the chance to speak to some of the journalists who were on the panels.
The Warwick Economics Summit is an event looking to bring global debates to students. It prides itself with being one of the largest student run conferences in Europe.
The event prides itself on having speakers from some of the world’s largest corporations. Primarily focusing on global economics, financial markets, and technology, This year’s summit also included talks about AI within journalism, global housing economics, and a panel debate on the environment. With the slogan ‘Join The Debate’, the people in attendance were able to question the speakers in formal Q and A sessions after every speech.
The event was ‘hybrid’ with people able to attend the talks via teams, with the opportunity to submit questions for the speakers to be read out by the people chairing the talks.
This year it was the 25th anniversary of the Summit. The weekend was kicked off with a talk from the founder of the event, Henrik Johnsson, who came up with the idea of holding an economics summit for undergraduate students back in 2001. Now Johnsson is the CEO of Sona Asset Management after graduating from Warwick University in 2002.
Over the last 25 years the Summit has grown. With some famous speakers, from noble prize winners to presidents of European countries, the summit has become an international event welcoming students from all over the world.
The Gaudie thanks the Warwick Economics Summit team for inviting our publication to the event.
