Five Things You’ll Encounter at the CEI Dinner
This week, almost a thousand of Washington’s finest liberty lovers will travel through the rabbit hole to CEI’s Annual Dinner and Reception. The topsy turvy backdrop of Alice and Wonderland is perfect for both a dinner cited as one of Washington’s most enjoyable events and an evening focused on the nation’s regulatory landscape.
It’s no secret that CEI puts a lot of love into this dinner, as each staff member contributes to make this a special evening. It’s a very important date you won’t want to be late for! And if you step through the looking glass with us you will likely encounter the following:
- A maze of the most beautiful decorations you’ve seen.
If you don’t see the elaborate event décor first, you’re sure to hear some oohs and awes when you enter the event. Our dinner has a reputation of transporting people into a different world of colorful backdrops and elaborate scenery. You will definitely want to snap a few photos of the set.
- Principled libertarians taking advantage of “sindustry” goodies.
The annual dinner has a reputation of providing the best response to nanny-state regulators. And if you don’t want your party favors, there is certainly another party-loving libertarian at your table who’ll be happy to take them off your hands. At the end of the night, you’ll most likely catch that same principled liberty lover stuffing as many e-cigarettes in their pocket as they can.
- Fiercely competitive tweeters.
Nothing brings out the best in us like a competition of crafting the most eloquent and witty remark in 140 characters or less. And when prizes are involved, the CEI dinner’s best tweet competition can get heated! You’re likely to see several audience members furiously typing on their phone all night as they work to wordsmith and polish a beautiful phrase or clever note to summarize the event. But extreme frustration will follow if one forgets to add the #CEIDinner hashtag.
- Loud discussions on the size of the federal regulatory state.
What can we say? Reducing the size of the regulatory state is near and dear to pretty much everyone at the dinner. If it’s not why did you come? And while we all deeply care about reducing this regulatory burden, some will be much more vocal, especially as the night goes on. You’re sure to catch a passionate and heated policy debate at some point in the evening. But isn’t that why you came?
- Fred Smith.
What would a CEI dinner be without its venerable founder, Fred L. Smith, Jr.? If you don’t know who Joseph Schumpeter is, you will before the night is over.