Dear friend of Atlas,

The Atlas staff is coming off a whirlwind week of 30th Anniversary festivities in New York City. More than 500 attendees at our Freedom Dinner with Nobel Laureate Mario Vargas Llosa.... celebrating the 2011 Templeton Freedom Awards' winners in 16 categories... 39 promising institute leaders at our Think Tank Leadership Training program.... representatives from 49 countries at the Atlas Liberty Forum.... and a special announcement about bold Atlas plans for 2012.

It was an invigorating way to celebrate our 30th Anniversary year!

In place of our regular edition of Highlights, I'd like to share some favorite memories of last week. For those of you who attended, I hope you'll share this message with friends that should take an interest in Atlas and its high-energy events. For those who missed out, I hope you'll click through on some of the links in this message. It's the next best thing to having attended yourself!

As has become our tradition, we started our Liberty Forum with a round of "speed networking" -- our favorite way to quickly make connections between newcomers and old friends of Atlas. This was followed by our Templeton Freedom Award luncheon, where we honored the 16 winners of $10,000 prizes within this prestigious long-running Atlas program. We also held a "Think Tank Shark Tank" competition, moderated by Atlas's own Deroy Murdock, and modeled after the popular TV show that has entrepreneurs giving a pitch to venture capitalists. Our contest saw three Templeton Freedom Award winners pitching a panel of investors, philanthropists, and consultants: Don Smith (Smith Family Foundation), Terry Kibbe (Rising Tide Foundation), Lauren Templeton (John Templeton Foundation), Ann Fitzgerald (AC Fitzgerald and Associates) and Heather Rae Johnson (HRJ Consulting). Prahbat Shrestha from Samriddhi Prosperity Foundation was the winner of the $5000 prize generously sponsored by the Rising Tide Foundation.

Throughout the two-day Liberty Forum, we featured captivating stories from every corner of the world. I encourage you to take a look at the full program online here. We met inspiring new "freedom champions" who have launched ambitious efforts in recent years, such as Angel Soto whose think tank Democracy and Markets is promoting entrepreneurship in Latin America. We got wonderful advice about projects that think tanks can easily replicate, like Jim Stergios' presentation about the Pioneer Institute's "Better Government Competition." And we received insight from those who are trying to affect change in some of the world's most troubled places. I'll long remember Nouh El-Harmouzi's words about his efforts to bring peace and liberty to the Middle East: "It's better to light a candle than to spend a lifetime cursing the darkness."

On Tuesday evening, Atlas trustee John Blundell discussed his latest book, Ladies of Liberty, during a special reception sponsored by the Independent Women's Forum. In addition to reviewing a largely unknown history of female abolitionists and entrepreneurs and political writers, John shared personal stories of some of the ladies in his book, including favorites such as Ayn Rand, Rose Friedman and Atlas co-founder Dorian Fisher.

The second day of the Liberty Forum began with an insightful discussion on "The Morality of Free Enterprise" sponsored by the Seven Fund. Atlas's Tom Palmer moderated the panel, which featured thoughtful, provocative talks by Michael Fairbanks and Bill Easterly. Another star-studded panel occurred in the afternoon, as Steve Forbes, Lew Lehrman, Jimmy Kemp, and Atlas's Sound Money Fellow Judy Shelton drew a large crowd to discuss the topic of Sound Money. Attendees received copies of new books by Shelton and Lehrman, and heard a consistent refrain that positive monetary policy reforms are becoming increasingly possible. All three presented suggestions on how to return to some form of a gold-backed currency. Another fun highlight of the second day of Liberty Forum was the "Gaga for Liberty" panel on pop culture. MTV's Kurt Loder, using examples of films like The Matrix, encouraged partners to draft strong compelling stories of liberty that will sell themselves. Parth Shah, of the Centre for Civil Society in New Delhi drove this point home by describing how Bollywood films are bringing scrutiny to corruption and celebrating personal liberties in Asia.

During the Liberty Forum Luncheon, Atlas honored World Freedom Day and remembered the victims of communism by featuring Lee Edwards (Victims of Communism Foundation) and Poland's former deputy Prime Minister, Leszek Balcerowicz. In his keynote address, Balcerowicz discussed how Poland's transformation from communism succeeded as a result of being bold, and he reminded us that Freedom Champions in the Atlas network must also set their sights high. He found a silver lining in the many challenges our cause presently faces: "The struggle for freedom will never end. This is good news, friends, because we have a permanent job to do!"

That evening, in true Atlas style, over 500 supporters of liberty arrived at the lovely Capitale in lower Manhattan to celebrate Atlas's Freedom Dinner, the 22nd anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the 30th anniversary of Atlas's founding. This evening was generously sponsored by the Smith Family Foundation. Toasts to these anniversaries were offered by Leszek Balcerowicz, Atlas's Leonard Liggio, Arpita Nepal of Samriddhi in Nepal, and Joe Lehman of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Mackinac had partnered with Atlas on the Think Tank Leadership Training program that we held November 5-7, and Joe's eloquent toast really summed up the night: “There has never been a time when free people did not have to defend themselves against deceivers and usurpers and thugs, and there never will be on this side of Heaven. Freedom requires strong social movements to precede, and undergird, its political expression. That is why we are wise to focus on hearts and minds as well as laws. For if the human heart and mind will insist, the law cannot forever resist."

The featured attraction for the Freedom Dinner was, of course, Mario Vargas Llosa -- who serves as Atlas's Templeton Leadership Fellow, and is perhaps also known for receiving the 2010 Nobel Prize in Literature. If you unfamiliar with Vargas Llosa's work and his contribution to freedom, I recommend viewing the short video we produced earlier this year. You must also read his keynote address, or this truncated video version of it.

Dancing with the Alex Donner Band followed the Freedom Dinner's formal program, and the next day, we had another unique event. We were able to bring selected think tank guests of Atlas to the filming of a special episode of the John Stossel show. Put a reminder in your calendar so you watch Stossel's program on January 5th to see an "Atlas-themed" show with special guests: John Allison of BB&T Bank, Chip Mellor (Institute for Justice), John Blundell, Deroy Murdock, Steve Forbes, and Nicki Kurakowa Neilly (Independent Women's Forum).

I hope you can see why all of us at Atlas are proud of the show we put on last week. (And why we might be a little slow answering emails this week!) To view the pictures taken during the Freedom Dinner, click here. For pictures from the Liberty Forum, click here.

Thanks for your interest in the work that Atlas is doing to build a stronger freedom movement. If you'd like to attend Atlas's next flagship event, the Atlas Experience is being held April 25-26 in Colorado Springs, CO. Please do save the date! We'll have registration live for this event in early February.

best, Brad Lips

p.s. I almost forgot to mention one important piece of news. I gave you a teaser at the top of this letter about "bold plans for 2012" that I announced during the Freedom Dinner. That is, we announced plans for the Atlas Leadership Academy -- a strategy for scaling-up our training programs so we reach more, train more, and support more think tank leaders. We'll launch the Atlas Leadership Academy formally in the first quarter of 2012.

Keep an eye on our newsletters as we unveil the details, and as always, feel free to contact me with your questions and ideas. Thanks again for your support of Atlas and the broader cause of liberty!