Queen Mary's Octagon hosts new BBC Three live panel show 'Free Speech'

March 8, 2012 - PRLog -- Following on from the success of hosting the BBC’s Question Time in October, Queen Mary’s Grade II Victorian Octagon venue saw the first outing of the new live BBC Three debate show ‘Free Speech’ on 7th March.

Hosted by Jake Humphrey, the format involves direct audience participation throughout: from proposing stories for the panel to consider, to showing whether they like or dislike the panelists. Responses and updates from viewers, alongside audience opinion are displayed throughout the show through the merging of ‘hash tag’ data with graphical representation visible to the host to shape the debate.

Jonathan Rhodes, Marketing and Sales Manager for Events & Hospitality QM notes ‘Being chosen by Mentorn Media to launch ‘Free Speech’ is a prestigious achievement for Queen Mary. It fits with the College's stated ethos of promoting free expression and the sharing of ideas and beliefs, also reflecting our proven success with the hosting of the BBC's Question Time.’

The Octagon is just one of over 100 meeting and training rooms available at the Mile End campus of Queen Mary, through the Events & Hospitality QM offering, alongside facilities at three other central London locations. The Mile End campus is just 2 miles from the 2012 Olympic park and, in addition to meeting and training rooms, it features 1200 ensuite bedrooms and catering facilities. Further information is available at www.qmhospitality.co.uk

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Queen Mary, University of London is one of the UK’s leading research-focused higher education institutions with some 16,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students.
Amongst the largest of the colleges of the University of London, Queen Mary’s 3,000 staff deliver world-class degree programmes and research across three faculties: Science and Engineering; Humanities and Social Sciences and the School of Medicine and Dentistry.
One of the rising stars in UK higher education, Queen Mary was ranked 11th nationally in the last Research Assessment Exercise, and was rated as one of the world’s elite universities in the 2010 Times Higher Education’s Top 200 World University Rankings (120th place).
The College has a strong international reputation with around 23 per cent of students coming from over 130 countries.
Queen Mary has an annual turnover of £300m, research income worth £70m, and a yearly impact on the UK economy of over £750m.