About Us

Mission

The Progressive Forum, Houston, is a civic speaker organization dedicated to enriching our democracy and culture by presenting the great minds we believe are advancing the success of the individual, our species, and life on the planet, great minds from all the fields of human endeavor, the sciences and humanities as well as politics and public affairs. Our progressive viewpoint is rooted in mainstream constitutional, enlightenment, and egalitarian values that need continual affirmation. The Progressive Forum originated a new model for civic speaker organizations in Houston to create larger audiences and a higher quality experience by providing an evening theater event compared to traditional hotel luncheons. Operating like a performing arts company,The Forum uses the finest theaters, pays speaker fees to attract the top intellectual stars, advertises throughout the region, and sells tickets to the public through box office services on its website. The Progressive Forum is a nonpartisan, nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization.

History

The Progressive Forum premiered on June 13, 2005, with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Houston Mayor Bill White at The Hobby Center, Sarofim Hall, in a program called, “Our Environmental Challenges.” The year before, in June 2004, founder Randall Morton saw Robert Kennedy on Larry King Live and called one of Houston’s fine speaker organizations and suggested they present Kennedy but nothing came of it. Dismayed about national trends after the elections of November 2004, he called Kennedy’s representatives who were responsive to Kennedy appearing at a new speaker series. Morton had experience creating and hosting another speaker series which became the largest in the oil industry, The Oilfield Breakfast Forum. He also had 32 years of marketing experience operating his own advertising and public relations agency, Randall Morton International, Inc. The success of the Kennedy-White event demonstrated that The Progressive Forum had a viable business model. Six months later, the Forum opened its first spring season in 2006 with Jared Diamond, Seymour Hersh, and Molly Ivins. Al Gore appeared June 7th in a sell-out event launching An Inconvenient Truth at The Progressive Forum, his first U.S. book event for that title. That first year, The Progressive Forum presented seven events which also included George Soros, Edward O. Wilson, and Frank Rich in the fall.

Founder’s Biographical Sketch

Randall Morton founded The Progressive Forum in 2005. He has owned Randall Morton International, Inc. for 32 years, an independent market communication, advertising, and public relations agency primarily serving the leading oil equipment companies in the U.S., Japan, Mexico, and Europe. Morton created and hosted The Oilfield Breakfast Forum, the largest speaker series in the petroleum industry whose surplus went to the SEARCH-Homeless Project. He was a member of the board and management committee of the predecessor to Grant Prideco, the industry's largest manufacturer of drill pipe. He served as an issue writer for the Democratic National Committee while earning a degree in government from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. At Georgetown, he was ranked third nationally as a pass receiver in nonscholarship football. He served as an adjunct professor at the University of Tulsa teaching advertising design and copy writing after earning a second degree at UT in communications. He is married to board director, Suzanne Longley, and they have two children.