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Social | Sat 6th Sept | 5-7pm
Curious about Full Circle? Join us for a drink & discover what we're all about.
Whether you're already part of our community or simply intrigued, you’ll have the opportunity to meet the team, explore the house & hear more about our future plans – including what the different types of Full Circle memberships have to offer. It’s a relaxed & informal setting, ideal for asking questions & seeing if this is a place where you feel at home.
We warmly welcome current members & their guests too – so feel free to bring a friend or two along. It's a lovely way to connect with others who share a curiosity for ideas, culture & community. No pressure, just good company & a great conversation.
We're looking forward to welcoming you – the first drink is on us!
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ADDITIONAL INFO
WHEELCHAIR ACCESS
Bar & snacks
Culture | Thurs 18th Sept | 7:00-8:30 pm
*Doors open at 6.30pm. The book club begins at 7pm.
Join a new season of encounters around the latest works of contemporary fiction, in the company of other avid readers and our host Eleonora Balsano.
The Möbius Book is a genre-bending story about breaking. Adrift in the winter of 2021 after a sudden breakup and the ensuing depression, the novelist Catherine Lacey began cataloguing the wreckage of her life and the beauty of her friendships, a practice that eventually propagated fiction both entirely imagined and strangely true. She soon realized that she was writing about her relationship with faith. Through relationships, travel, reading and memories of her religious fanaticism, Lacey charts the contours of faith’s absence and re-emergence. A hybrid work across fiction and nonfiction, The Möbius Book troubles the line between memory and fiction with an openhearted defense of faith’s inherent danger.
Monthly meet up to discuss a great read, along with drinks & good company.
Open to everyone | Booking required
Bar open
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Bar open with snacks
Launch Party: Season 13
2025-26
SEASON LAUNCH | Fri 19th Sept | 7pm
Welcome to the new season, full of inspiring thinkers, doers, activists, artists, musicians & more.
Discover our new programme and meet some of the hosts of our regular activities.
Come for a drink and a bite, see some new faces, and feel the vibe of our place and community
And if you're not a member, you can also join on the night!
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Attendance is FREE, but please register.
FREE drinks for Members in the 1st hour.
OPEN TO ALL
WITH TAHMID CHOWDHURY
Social | Sat 20th Sep | 3-5pm
It's hard not to feel downbeat by the amount of negativity and pessimism that we are often surrounded by – whether the constant reminders of how 'busy' and 'stressed' we all are, or the negative news cycle pulling us into a state of misery.
Many of us came to Brussels with lofty ambitions to improve the world around us. But as time has gone by, perhaps we lost connection with our 'why'.
Perhaps you've been working in the EU bubble or a large organisation. You've found things have gone a little stale, and you want more space to be stimulated and to have an injection of positive and innovative thinking in your life.
If that's the case, join us!
The aim of this gathering is to build a community which reinjects a much-needed sense of inclusion and positivity in the Brussels landscape. By bringing together kindred-spirits, we can reconnect with our sense of purpose to make the world a better place.
The social will be informal, allowing for open and free-flowing conversation. There will be some light facilitation to help people get to know each other. There will be conversation prompts and some introductory words and framing for each session.
Come along and bring your friends!
Conflict In the Workplace with Sandra Melone & Éva Kamarás
Conflict In the Workplace
with Sandra Melone & Éva Kamarás
Ideas / Conversations | Sat 20th Sep | 5-7pm
This popular Conversation Series of monthly meet ups on Conflict & Peace continues into the new Season! Our fabulous host, Sandra Melone, together with a diverse range of expert guests will bring conflict and conflict transformation centre-stage in rich discussions that better inform and equip us with tools to face tensions near and far.
For our first gathering, Éva Kamarás joins Sandra in unpacking conflict at work. A common occurrence with diverse causes, workplace conflict can come in different forms - from disagreements right up to systemic issues. We’ll dive into it, share our experiences and look at effective, constructive ways to come closer to a resolution.
Éva Kamarás is a seasoned Brussels professional with a practical mindset and experienced in strategy, communication, change management and workplace culture.
Hosting the Series is Sandra Djuvara Melone, CEO of Zancora Consulting, which she founded in 2021, with a strong expertise in peacebuilding, conflict resolution, crisis management, human rights and, not last, gender. With a vast experience on the ground, she has worked across Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. She knows first hand what living through civil war is like. Sandra is the Chairwoman of the Board of Directors of Search for Common Ground, Europe, one of the world’s leading international non-governmental organisations working in peacebuilding and conflict transformation, where she's been involved in various roles since 1995. Sandra is a founding member of the European Platform for Conflict Prevention and Transformation (EPCPT), of the European Peacebuilding Liaison Office (EPLO), and of the Child Soldiers Initiative (CSI). Before dedicating her career to conflict transformation, Sandra worked in human rights advocacy with Amnesty International, and in international education.
The Singles Apero is our popular series of monthly encounters where you can meet other social singles in a safe space without matching pressure. Feel free to bring any single friends along or just come by yourself.
Open to all singles
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We only have 120 tickets and we always sell out!!
It's time to dust off your dancing shoes and join a traditional Scottish ceilidh.
No previous experience or dancing skills required - the band will be calling out the steps as we go along. If you're a ceilidh regular then you know how much fun it is!
Bring your friends or come along but please, no spikey heels on our rather beautiful wooden floor.
* 7.30pm doors open - meals available to pre order, bar snacks also available
* 8.00pm start dancing!
* 10.30pm Band finishes
*TICKET INCLUDES 1 DRINK (BEER, WINE OR SOFT)
Bar & light food
The Hoggies are the original Brussels-based Scottish ceilidh band.
The Hoggies website
with Nigel Clarke
Culture / Salon | Fri 26th Sep | 6.30-8.30pm
*Doors open at 6.30pm. The speaker will start at 7pm.
Not a Member yet? Join Full Circle now & come to events at the Members' rate!
Join us for an evening with composer Nigel Clarke to unveil the creative process behind making music for the movies.
Nigel will show clips and illustrations from his soundtracks to stimulate discussion on the role of music in film and TV. He will also give a historical perspective on some of the great film scores of the past and spark conversation on this fascinating subject.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Nigel Clarke studied composition at the Royal Academy of Music with Paul Patterson, where he was awarded the Academy’s highest distinction, the Queen’s Commendation for Excellence. Clarke has previously held positions as Young Composer in Residence at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, Composition and Contemporary Music Tutor at the Royal Academy of Music, London, Head of Composition at the London College of Music and Media, Visiting Tutor at the Royal Northern College of Music, Associate Composer to the Young Concert Artists Trust, Black Dyke Band, the Band of HM Grenadier Guards, Brass Band Buizingen, Middle Tennessee State University Bands, Royal Military School of Music, Kneller Hall and International Composer-in-Association to the Grimethorpe Colliery Band. Clarke has also co-written film soundtracks to: Jinnah, The Little Vampire, The Little Polar Bear, The Thief Lord, Baseline, & Will and in 2006 was a co-nominee at `The World Soundtrack Awards’ in the `Discovery of the Year’ category. In 2008 Clarke was awarded the title of Doctor of Musical Arts from University of Salford.
with Andreea Petre-Goncalves
Ideas / Conversations | Sat 27th Sep | 5-7pm
Join us for a hopeful conversation with Andreea. Stay tuned, more details coming soon.
Open to everyone | Booking required Bar open
Andreea Petre-Goncalves was 8 years old when totalitarian Communism collapsed overnight in her native Romania. She saw then how quickly yesterday’s absolute truth can become tomorrow reviled atrocity. She knows that societal narratives can shift fast, and when they do, they make deep system re-set possible. For two decades she worked for international development, human rights, health and sustainability in the EU institutions and international NGOs. In 2019 she set up Flare, a Brussels-based think-and-do tank that experiments with practical ways of shifting the collective ideas we hold of what is normal and desirable. This work builds on 15 years of her researching and writing about societal narrative shifts. She is a BMW Foundation Responsible Leader and a member of Global Diplomacy Lab.
A salon with Sarah Stein-Lubrano
Salon / Ideas | Fri 3rd Oct | 6.30-8.30pm
Bold new voice Sarah Stein Lubrano compellingly illustrates why we shouldn’t talk about politics - and what we should do instead. Researching at the intersection of psychology and politics, she shows us the evidence: arguing our case rarely convinces others. So what then? Are there any valuable, effective forms of political thinking and doing that can unstuck us from trite polarised conversations or push us to take action for real?
Sarah suggests that in the age of Trump, Musk, and the rise of the far right, commentators have focused too much on words. However, what’s really needed by anyone hoping to promote progressive ideas is not arguments, but an infrastructure that fosters new relationships and experiences. She delves deep into our contemporary social fabric and looks at how we change 21st century minds and build much needed social infrastructure, revealing also how to be a good political thinker.
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Sarah Stein Lubrano is a researcher, author and broadcaster. Her academic research has focused on the role of emotion in political communication, and specifically cognitive dissonance. Lubrano is the head of research for the Future Narratives Lab. For many years she was the head of content at The School of Life, where she is still a content lead. She writes and speaks publicly on a variety of topics. In earlier lives, Lubrano made films and worked as a prison tutor and obituary writer.
GOOD READS
Don't Talk About Politics, How to change 21st-century minds (2025).
KEY LINKS
Sarah Stein Lubrano Website
Culture | Thurs 9th Oct | 7:00-8:30 pm
Heart Lamp is the winner of the International Booker Prize 2025. In 12 stories, author Banu Mushtaq exquisitely captures the everyday lives of women and girls in Muslim communities in southern India.Published originally in the Kannada language between 1990 and 2023, praised for their dry and gentle humour, these portraits of family and community tensions testify to Mushtaq’s years as a journalist and lawyer, championing women’s rights and protesting all forms of caste and religious oppression.
Written in a style at once witty, vivid, colloquial, moving and excoriating, it’s in her characters that Mushtaq emerges as an astonishing writer and observer of human nature, building disconcerting emotional heights out of a rich spoken style. Her opus has garnered both censure from conservative quarters as well as India’s most prestigious literary awards.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Banu Mushtaq is a writer, activist and lawyer in the state of Karnataka, southern India. Winner of the International Booker Prize 2025 for Heart Lamp.
Social | Sat 11th Oct | 3-5 pm
On Israel & Palestine
with Sandra Melone & Eva Dalak
Conversations / Sat 11th Oct / 5-7pm
Join us for a critical conversation on peace in Israel and Palestine. Joining Sandra is Eva Dalak, an Israeli Palestinian and a peace activator with over two decades of experience in conflict transformation.
Eva is the founder of Peace Activation and co-founder of One Whole Peace, both soul-centred peace movements in Palestine and Israel bringing citizens of different faiths together in conflict transformation. She is passionate about activating peace, promoting gender equality, interfaith dialogue, and empowering communities to build peace from within.
As a skilled conflict transformation facilitator, peacebuilding trainer, and gender advisor, Eva has amassed experience in over 22 countries in conflict zones across Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. She is committed to promoting individual soul-centred leadership and radical responsibility through innovative and entrepreneurial initiatives.
WHEELCHAIR
A SALON WITH BEN CHU
Salon / Ideas | Fri 17th Oct | 6.30-8.30pm
Nations are turning away from each other. Faith in globalisation has been undermined by the pandemic, the energy crisis, surging trade wars and great power rivalry. A new vision is competing to replace the economic order we've known for many decades. One that leading economic journalist Ben Chu calls Exile Economics. A rejection of interdependence, a downgrading of multilateral collaboration and a striving for greater national self-sufficiency. The supporters of this new order argue it will establish genuine security, prosperity and peace. But is this promise achievable? Or a seductive delusion?
Through the stories of globally traded commodities - from silicon to steel, from soybeans to solar panels - Ben Chu illustrates the intricate web of interdependence that has come to bind nations together - and underlines the dangers of this new push to isolationism. There are far better alternatives to exile. Join Ben as he guides us to this new world in all its promise and peril.
Ben Chu is one of the leading economic journalists of our time. He is Policy and Analysis Correspondent at BBC Verify. He’s also an experienced speaker and broadcaster specialised in economics and current affairs. Previously he was Economics Editor at Newsnight, and at the Independent prior to that. Ben was nominated for Business Journalist of the Year at the 2015 British Journalism Awards and for Business Commentator of the Year at the 2018 Comment Awards. Ben was born in Manchester to a Chinese father and British mother. He lives in London.
Exile Economics, What happens if globalisation fails (2025); Chinese Whispers: Why Everything You've Heard about China is Wrong (2013).
Website: Ben Chu
Ideas / Conversations | Sat 18th Oct | 5-7pm
SINGLES APERO
Social | Sat 18th Oct | 7-9pm
Culture | Thurs 6th Nov | 7:00-8:30 pm
In the first part of Solvej Balle’s epic septology, Tara Selter has slipped out of time. Every morning, she wakes up to the 18th of November. She no longer expects to wake up to the 19th of November, and she no longer remembers the 17th of November as if it were yesterday. She comes to know the shape of the day like the back of her hand – the grey morning light in her Paris hotel; the moment a blackbird breaks into song; her husband’s surprise at seeing her return home unannounced. But for everyone around her, this day is lived for the first and only time. As Tara approaches her 365th 18th of November, she can’t shake the feeling that somewhere underneath the surface of this day, there’s a way to escape.
Solvej Balle is a Danish author and publisher. She made her debut in 1986 with Lyrebird and went on to write one of the 1990s’ most acclaimed works of Danish literature, According to the Law: Four Accounts of Mankind. Following this, she disappeared from the spotlight, moving from Copenhagen to the small island of Ærø, where she founded her publishing house, Pelagraf.
Nearly 30 years later, the first book of a planned septology, On the Calculation of Volume I, was self-published. Five books have been published in Danish so far, with translations underway, and it was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2025.
Ideas / Conversations | Sat 8th Nov | 5-7pm
Open to everyone
Ideas / Salon | Fri 14th Nov | 6.30-8.30 pm
How do the Earth's killers think? What makes their crimes so deadly? And how can we stop them from stealing our future? Psychologist Julia Shaw is a master at looking at the why human beings do the (evil) things they do. From oil spills to illegal deforestation, she exposes the disturbing underbelly of environmental crime whilst also shining a light on the heroes attempting to thwart its progress.
Using insider sources and her expertise as a criminal psychologist, Julia Shaw takes us deep into some of the worst environmental crimes of our time (think Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the Dieselgate emissions scandal, or the Shuidong wildlife crime syndicate).
Ecosystems are destroyed, people are murdered, organised criminals terrorise communities and corporate gangsters operate outside the law. And closely following their every move, are teams of secret agents, vigilantes and scientists who are fighting for our planet's future. Dr Shaw reconstructs the minds of the perpetrators and, from the Amazon forest to South African gold mines, she follows the impact of green crimes right to our doorsteps, and meticulously profiles the work of the heroes bringing these criminals to justice.
Julia Shaw is a German-Canadian criminal psychologist at University College London, bestselling author, and regular presenter of TV and audio shows. As a scientist, she specialises in false memory, memory hacking, investigative interviewing, and understanding the criminal mind, as well as identity in the age of social media and digital ethics. She is also a best-selling writer translated into twenty languages, author of four books. She strives to to form more tolerant, respectful and inclusive working places and environments. In 2017 Julia co-founded the startup Spot which uses artificial intelligence and memory science to help individuals document and report inappropriate workplace behaviour. In 2024 she released two series on BBC Radio 4. Experts on Trial, about the secret world of expert witnesses, and The Human Subject, co-hosted by Dr Adam Rutherford, about the dark history of modern medicine. Between 2020 and 2024 she wrote and hosted the award-winning BBC Sounds podcast Bad People.She has also been a presenter for German television.
Green Crime, Inside the Minds of the People Destroying the Planet, and How to Stop Them (2025); Bi, The Hidden Culture, History and Science of Bisexuality (2022); Making Evil, The Science Behind Humanity's Dark Side (2020); The Memory Illusion, Remembering, Forgetting and the Science of False Memory (2016).
Julia Shaw
Social | Sat 15th Nov | 3-5pm
with host Sandra Melone & a special guest
Ideas / Conversations | Sat 15th Nov | 5-7pm
Join Sandra & her special guest for an intriguing conversation about conflict resolution and peace. More details coming soon. Save the date!
Social | Sat 15th Nov | 7-9pm
Prof. Kimberly Nicholas, sustainability scientist at Lund University, shares her analysis of the impacts of key EU policies, and offers a hopeful, clear-eyed (and entertaining) guide to effecting real change.
Note: This talk in online. __________________________________________________________
Prof. Kimberly Nicholas is a sustainability scientist at Lund University in Sweden. She has published 60 articles on climate and sustainability in leading peer-reviewed journals; writes for publications such as The Guardian, Scientific American, and New Scientist; and is the author of the Los Angeles Times bestseller UNDER THE SKY WE MAKE: How to be Human in a Warming World, and the monthly climate newsletter We Can Fix It. She gives lectures and moderates at about 75 international meetings and organizations each year across public policy, civil society, arts and culture, the wine industry, foundations, and academia. Her work has been featured by outlets including the BBC, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and many more. She also has a PhD in the Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources at Stanford University.
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