“Any organisation or institution that is not explicitly right-wing will over time drift and become left-wing.”
O'Sullivan's Law · John O’Sullivan · 1989
This January, 21–22, John O’Sullivan will be inviting a first cohort of Repealers to Budapest — to begin the controlled demolition of his Law.
O’Sullivan’s Law Conference · Budapest
Budapest
Across two days, they will form teams of co-founders, then build the first version of their dream organisation on-site.
In Repealing O’Sullivan’s Law, John O’Sullivan wants to push back against the idea that O’Sullivan’s Law — invented to describe why the Right always loses the culture game — is deterministic. If an organisation will drift leftwards unless otherwise acted upon, then we should act upon it.
Accordingly, John wants to challenge the conservative world to talk less and act more.
The inaugural O’Sullivan’s Law Conference is about increasing the number of explicitly right-coded institutions; and about making existing ones more powerful and more robust.
The Left has long understood systemic power. The Right is only just catching up.
Over the course of 48 hours, delegates from across the conservative spectrum will descend on Budapest — John’s home, and the home of a certain kind of toothy conservative institution-building — to begin to create the world we want to live in.
Delegates will be asked to form teams, to come up with an idea for a conservative-coded organisation that could enhance the mission, and to develop the business plan for it over the course of the conference.
They will identify a need, stress-test the bones, then be run through a series of seminars and challenges that will refine it — lessons on governance, operations, marketing, and fundraising.
Each team will take their idea from a few paragraphs to a well-worked business case.
Finally, the teams will participate in a competitive pitching challenge — that will rank-order the ideas, with the winners offered ongoing coaching and support from O’Sullivan & Partners.
The rest will return home with a well-tested idea they can nurture to flight.
Curriculum
Delegates will work together in coming up with concepts, then across eight seminars — four a day — hear a series of lectures from top experts, and be put through coaching exercises that will refine their concept and operationalise it.
Coming up with ideas. Spotting gaps in the market. Identifying ‘needs’ versus ‘nice things’. Turning a need into a product and turning a product into a business. Identifying the right scope. Writing a vision.
Why does anyone want this? How can you test whether you have a business idea, or just a nice idea? What does market research look like in the sector? How to write a strategic plan and budget that takes you through the first three years.
What are the banking and legal structures you can adopt to get set up in no time — while protecting the long-term? What are the best ways to hire, and how do you know if someone is right? Creating an organisational culture that is more than the sum of its parts.
Who is going to pay the bills? We hear from builders who have gone down various routes: direct donor funding, grants, fanbase-revenue, and earned-revenue through selling services. And we hear from donors about what they look for and why.
What are the tried and tested management strategies that make novices competent? What are the systems you need to build first to get the machine to run on rails? Assigning roles and man-managing. Analysing processes, generating improvements. Avoiding hassle.
How do you get the message out? What does a comms strategy look like in 2026? How to build podcasts, grow newsletters, make short form video, cultivate journalists, stage events, break through into public consciousness?
A system to make anyone capable of defining their business and framing their need, based on the Y Combinator method of venture-capital pitching. Getting the proposition exactly right. What funders want to hear. Building a deck. Selling the sizzle. How to speak with warmth and clarity. How to handle tricky questions. Negotiation.
The conference ends with each team pitching their now burnished idea to our panel of expert judges.
All other teams will be asked to keep building what they began: they’ll also be invited to a personalised 90 day check-in with O’Sullivan & Partners, and to join the O’Sullivan & Partners Foundry Network.
The course takes place on 21 and 22 January. We are delighted to come to know the full breadth of the Right, and excited to pair you with a team who can balance your strengths. There is no fee to apply — payment happens once you are offered a place. If you wish to apply for a sponsored place, indicate that in the dropdown box.
Convened by
O’Sullivan & Partners is the organisation behind the Repealing O’Sullivan’s Law Conference. Founded with John O’Sullivan, to deliver projects and consultancy across the think tank world, to make the Right more durable.
We make conservative civic society effective by building and running the machinery on which its ideas propagate.
Sponsorship
So we’re interested in hearing from sponsors who’d like the same.
We’re offering headline sponsorship of the conference. And individual place sponsorship: fund a single seat and the delegate who fills it. Please contact us at sponsorship@osullivanandpartners.com.
FAQ
No.
Here is a list of hotels we recommend in Budapest, to suit every price point.
Budapest is a major regional hub. Flights are cheap if bought in time. In addition to Ryanair and EasyJet, Wizz Air is a native Hungarian company that offers all the same connections, at a highly competitive price.
Some. The conference offers morning and afternoon snacks, rolling coffee and a high-quality buffet lunch.
Yes. If you are accepted for a sponsored place, you can apply for total sponsorship. But these places are much more limited, so please don’t count on this — and bear with us while we pair you with a suitable sponsor.
Somewhat. We can direct you towards a number of hotels and lodgings we recommend, and advise on proximity to the venue. We cannot make bookings on your behalf. Budapest is bursting with hotels — January is relatively low-season, so you’ll be fine.
Budapest is one of the safest major cities in Europe — comfortably safer than London, Paris, Barcelona, Athens or Rome. You can walk its centre at night with the ease of Copenhagen or Vienna.
Excellent idea. We highly recommend it. Not only is Budapest safe — it is cheap. Beer can be found for 3 euros. A nice meal for 20 euros. Like Vienna’s little sister, Budapest is a beautiful and historic imperial city, with all mod cons. It will repay five days of tourism handsomely. In January the city’s thermal baths are at their best — well worth visiting.
No Euros. Hungarian Forints (roughly 400 to the Euro). But cards are taken everywhere, and the Euro is often given as a comparator price in downtown outlets.
Start with an irrigation at the city’s majestic bath houses. Climb Gellért Hill to get the panoramic sweep of the Danube. Visit Hungary’s exquisite Neo-Gothic parliament, the Országház. Shop on the splendid Haussmannesque avenue of Andrássy. Retire to a white-waistcoated Imperial café. Self-soothe at the picturesque island park of Margitsziget. Take a canary-yellow vintage tram up to absorb the medieval pomp of Buda Castle. Take in The Marriage of Figaro at the sumptuous Opera House. Head down to the bustling party town of the 7th District, where all hedonism has its price. Drink in the Freedom Era relics of its famed ruin bars. Head high into the Buda Hills on a scenic railway staffed exclusively by children. Take the ski-lift back down over the gardens of the urban villas of its most prosperous suburb. Start there.
Yes. The trip is 2.5 hours, the trains run every hour, and tickets are around 50 euro on the day. Bratislava is also 3 hours away by train.
Until 21 December, all places are refundable. Thereafter, refunds are offered at 50 per cent, until 6 January, after which no refunds are possible. Places are transferable to a colleague, with our agreement.
Payment is required within 10 days of being formally offered a place. If it is not received in full, the place will be returned to the list of available places. Invoices and receipts will proceed automatically from the booking process. If you need any special information included in your invoice, please note this in the payment form.
Hungary is in the Schengen area. UK, US, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand, Japanese, South Korean, Israeli, Brazilian, Argentine, Chilean and many other nationals travel visa-free for up to 90 days in any 180 — plenty for our purposes.
Note that this is not the same as needing nothing at all. The EU is rolling out ETIAS, an online travel authorisation (a quick, inexpensive form — not a visa) that visa-free visitors will need once it is in force. Depending on timing, it may apply to your January trip. Check the current requirement for your country on the EU’s official ETIAS site.
Absolutely — time permitting. Nationals of most African, South Asian, Middle Eastern and some other countries must apply for a Schengen short-stay (Type C) visa at a Hungarian embassy or consulate before travelling.
The official decision time is short: the consulate is meant to decide within 15 calendar days, and in straightforward cases it’s often more like a week. It can, however, be extended by up to 45 days for additional checks.
The real bottleneck is usually getting the appointment slot in the first place. In busy consulates, that can be anywhere from two weeks to two months’ wait — so apply as early as you can. We are very happy to provide a letter of acceptance and accreditation, so please let us know about your planned application as soon as possible.
If you are refused a visa, we will gladly refund your course fees, and hold a place for you in 2028.
Neither. No prior startup experience needed, no particular skillset. You should come with energy and a point of view. The point of the exercise is to learn — to grow your horizons, to meet others who might make a connection, to grow the collective pot of ideas. Everyone has a part to play.
Teams will be formed to match your skills with people we think would complement you. So a highly experienced think-tanker might be paired with a young influencer, who might in turn be paired with a lawyer who specialises in precisely the kind of activism the group would like to take on.
Three or four. We want everyone to be able to contribute actively — a big part of the learning is in the interaction — but we want teams big enough that no one is out on a limb. Most founding units in the startup world are two to four.
Yes, if you want to. This is about building functional ideas that change the course of culture. If you’re already halfway there, we’re happy to welcome you aboard as a unit.
It is fairly intense. We start at 9:30AM each day with opening remarks, then two seminars before lunch, each about 90 minutes, and two after, with breaks in between. Finish time is 5:30PM or 6PM. The work is hands-on: this is designed to be the opposite of the “What Is Conservatism?” ethereal conference circuit.
Formally, at 6PM on 22 January.
A laptop if you think you’ll use it — pen and paper will work just fine too. Oh yes, and a game-changing idea to tilt the world Rightwards.
All who complete the course will receive certification. They will also be inducted into The Repealers: the first cohort of conservative builders, an affiliative organisation in its own right. Only the Repealers will have access to an internal database of their fellows.
No — it takes in all levels of experience and scope. From grand ideas on ordering Western civilisation, to a really useful spreadsheet. Individuals will arrive in Budapest with very differing goals. Some will want to absorb what they learn and return to it at a moment that suits them; others may simply value the connections. As time goes by, projects may lose a co-founder or two. They might merge or de-merge. This is all part of the learning experience. The point is to come, and to try, and to cross-pollinate.
Here are some free ideas we’ve come up with.
No. Your idea is yours to keep. But within the constraints of the exercise, there will only be time to drill down on one (though the skills that entails are obviously transferable). Everyone must arrive with at least one thing. Then democracy and dialogue will take its course. Teams will blend, smelt and whittle down their individual ideas into one they can all agree on. That could be one they made earlier — or they could collectively come up with something entirely new in the room, once the juices flow. They will be aided and edited in this by the conference staff and mentors, who will be looking for impact, practicality, and cost.
For the purposes of the conference, each team will build out that one. And, by the end, will hopefully have built it out enough to continue to work collectively, far beyond the conference.
The truth of life is that great ideas are ten a penny — execution is everything. O’Sullivan & Partners take no position on who invented an idea, or the ultimate shape of ownership over it that delegates agree to. This is a Nozickian contracting universe: if you can freely agree to it, and stand it up in the eyes of the law, then everything is fine. Isn’t it?
This is the subject matter of the course. We’re in touch with many individual and organisational funders on just this question, and additional support can be offered ad hoc to great ideas.