Every year during our Culture Summit, we have about 40 different speakers presenting on an array of topics, perspectives and opinions. Our goal is to expose and equip our participants to multiple views of relevant topics in culture—even when it may challenge or offend us. As our Qideas.org/CultureSummit website states, “no topic is off limits.”

We often hear from a spectrum of leaders in our community with their insight or concerns about certain topics or speakers. Both positive and negative reactions are expected when we fulfill our mission of convening difficult conversations and trying to help leaders think well in a polarized culture. There are few places where this is possible anymore which is why we believe we need this time and space now more than ever.

Our decision to not move forward with the conversation we had planned for Unmasked author, Andy Ngo, was made by our team using the same process we’ve implemented dozens of times over the years. We were not successful in booking an acceptable alternative voice that would present the other side of the conversation—specifically, detailing the tactics and motivations of the alt-right. Based on that factor, we decided we could not host a well-balanced conversation on this topic at this time.

We respectfully communicated this programming decision and rationale to Mr. Ngo. Any other assertion is simply untrue.