Objectivist Conferences 2021: TOS Con

The Objective Standard conference in New England was satisfying

A three-day conference at a hotel on the Charles River exceeded my lowered expectations. This was my first time attending a conference founded by magazine publisher and speaker Craig Biddle, who’s since made The Objective Standard into a multi-platform business. Biddle runs this summer conference as family-operated competition to the Ayn Rand Institute’s summer Objectivist Conference (OCON).

The conference feeds ex-OCON speaker Biddle’s publication and his institute, which is partly funded by businessman and former Ayn Rand Institute board member Carl Barney. It’s not truly competitive with OCON. The program is neither as substantial nor as serious in philosophical terms. It’s much shorter. Yet there are advantages.

I had scheduled offsite research and story meetings during the New England conference, so, as usual with these affairs, mine is not a complete, let alone comprehensive, report (also, I know or have worked with many of the speakers). I found The Objective Standard (TOS) event…