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Barrington Town-Warming

Since 2018, the Village of Barrington Cultural Commission has brought together some of the nation’s and our community’s most influential speakers for a one-day “Town-Warming” symposium event at Barrington’s White House Cultural and Community Center. The annual event revives a 1940s-era tradition in the Village to bring our community out during the mid-winter in order to hear leaders in the realms of business, academia, religion, education, culture, and civic affairs as they discuss important topics of the day. Each event features a topical and significant theme.

Cultural Commission

Notable Past Speakers

  • Condoleezza Rice, Former U.S. Secretary of State
  • Henry Paulson, Former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury
  • William M. Daley, Former U.S. Secretary of Commerce
  • Chris Christie, Former New Jersey Governor
  • Doris Kearns Goodwin, American Presidential Historian
  • Greg Brown, Motorola President & CEO
  • John Williams, WGN Radio Personality
  • Mike Tobin, Fox News Senior Correspondent
  • Veronica Roth, Novelist
  • Capt. James D. Hawkins, Commander, Great Lakes Naval Base

Annual Themes

  • 2018 “Reality Check: Where We Are Today and Our Vision for the Future”
  • 2019 “Vision 2020: What Leaders See for the Future and the Foundations that Ground Us Through the Ages”
  • 2020 “Vision 2020 Part II: Media, Politics, and the Arts in the New Decade”
  • 2021 “What Now? Looking Ahead to the Post-Pandemic World”
  • 2022 “Security in a Post-Pandemic World”