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.
Notable Past Speakers
- Kevin McCarthy, Former U.S. Speaker of the House
- Michael R. Pompeo, Former U.S. Secretary of State
- Dr. Arthur Laffer, Former Economic Adviser to Presidents Reagan and Trump
- 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.”
- 2023 “Our Own Roaring ’20s: What’s Happening in the Present and What We See for the Future.”
- 2024 “Intelligence: Artificial, Political, Central.”
- 2025 “Transitions: New Perspectives on a Changing World.”
2026: Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
2025: Kevin McCarthy
2024: Mike Pompeo
2023: Art Laffer
2022: 22nd Secretary Of Defense Robert Gates
Multiple photos of Staff Sergeant Salvatore A. Giunta, from Company B, 2d Battalion (Airborne), 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, as he is inducted into the Hall of Heros at the Pentagon on 17 November 2010. US Army Europe Public Affairs photo by Richard Bumgardner.
2021: 66th Secretary Of State Condoleezza Rice
2020: Governor Chris Christie
