The 2026 Sydney Institute Annual Dinner Lecture will be held on Wednesday 9 September 2026
At The Grand Ballroom, Fullerton Hotel, Sydney.
Download booking form here | Return to mail@thesydneyinstitute.com.au
About the Annual Dinner
The Sydney Institute’s Annual Dinner has become the leading intellectual event of its kind in Australia. Beginning in 1990, a year after the Institute was formally opened by NSW Premier Nick Greiner and then NSW Opposition leader Bob Carr. The Dinner celebrated its 30th year in 2019 – with an address by former Prime Minister John Howard.
The Annual Dinner is an occasion for a prominent personality to present a serious lecture to an audience of some 800 paying guests – after they have enjoyed dinner and over an hour of networking.
The Annual Dinner’s presentation is the highlight of the evening. Guests look forward to a packed room of colleagues and business professionals taking in the thoughts and experience of a figure of stature and international recognition.
In the recent past, writers, intellectuals and politicians such as Sajid Javid, Amanda Foreman, Melvyn Bragg, Simon Schama, Kate Jennings, Clive James, William Shawcross, Tom Friedman and Don Farrell have given the Annual Dinner address, as well as Australian prime ministers Tony Abbott, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison along with Governor-General Quentin Bryce. Across the years, Sydney Institute Annual Dinner guests have also heard from prominent Australians such as Shirley Hazzard, George Miller, David Malouf, Peter Doherty, Andy Thomas, Helen Garner, Simone Young, Richard Tognetti, Jill Ker Conway and Sir Peter Cosgrove.