The 杏吧论坛 Space for Thought series was created to celebrate the completion of the New Academic Building at 杏吧论坛, which was officially opened by Her Majesty The Queen on 5 November 2008. These celebrations included an inaugural lecture series, with some of the world's leading academics, and 杏吧论坛's first ever Literary Festival, which ran annually from 2009 - 2017.