Russell Davies

interesting update and expectation management

As of the time of typing we've sold 144 tickets for Interesting 2007. The first 50 get the nice red badges above for being so supportive. The next lot will get blue ones for being early too. I'm really delighted about the response, both the ticket sales and the offers of help and support I'm getting, you're a splendid lot.

But I'm also conscious that you've booked all these tickets without the least idea what's going to be happening at the event and that's worrying me slightly. Because, although it's been billed in some quarters as TED-lite, there's not going to be any former vice-presidents, billionaires or Noble Prize winners speaking. I'm talking to some really interesting people about speaking, but they're not really famous interesting people. Just so you know. I'm going to try and get the speaker/performer list up in the next week or so and if you want to wait until then to make your mind up until then, that seems perfectly reasonable. (And I believe eventbrite are very efficient at refunds if you were banking on a vice-president.)

The other thing that I'm excited by is the idea of 'rich reporting' the whole thing.  I think we've got people lined up to film it, record it and photograph it, and hopefully wifi will be sorted out soon so there'll be some blogging, twittering and IMing. And I'm hoping to find people who might report/record in other ways too. In my head I can imagine a trickle of content leading up to June 16th, then a steadily thickening stream on the day and beyond, words, pictures, audio, video, everything. Has anyone seen this done in an interesting way before? Anyone got good ideas on how to do it? I'm not really sure what I'm asking here but maybe someone has.

the first 50 interesting tickets

Thanks again for all the helpful advice. Lots of people have recommended eventbrite (based on a personal experience) so I'm going to try that out. There's a site for the conference here - and you can use it to buy tickets, but I've only put 50 on for sale for now, just to see if it works properly. (The eventbrite site only contains skeletal information at the moment, the start and ending times are just rough guesses, we'll obviously keep you up to date with that stuff as we work it out.)

If you have any problems with booking a ticket via the site please let me know ASAP.

However, if you're one of those first 50 to book you'll get yourself one of these exclusive red badges when you arrive at the event. So you'll be able to swank around with a mildly exclusive air. I figure you deserve some reward for buying a ticket to an event about which you know almost nothing.

Of course this scheme will look rather optimistic if we don't actually manage to sell 50 tickets. At this point the badges will quickly become eternal reminders of my hubris and I will curse the very sight of them.

UPDATE: The first 50 sold out in about four hours. Blimey. And eventbrite seems to be working very well so we'll carry on with it. I've added another category of tickets - Enthusiasts -  for those of you who are still enthusiastic enough to book before we've worked out who the speakers are or anything. You too will get a reward - perhaps a different coloured badge.

I've also registered the thing on Upcoming. You can go there and announce your interest even if you're not yet willing to buy a ticket, and you can see who else might be coming, which is always nice.

In other interesting news, lots of people have kindly volunteered their services as speakers or general helpers, for which I'm hugely grateful. I'm just concentrating on basic logistics at the moment and will start thinking properly about content next week. So if I've not got back to you about any of that, very sorry. Will do shortly.

(And I went to an ether07 event on Sunday and realised that just the 07 is cooler than the full 2007. Oh well, I've bought the URL now, I'm not forking out for another one.)

interesting2007

Well, blimey, thank you all for your support and ideas on this whole conference thing. The Conway Hall folk now have the cheque in the bank so there's no going back. I've registered interesting2007.com as a placeholder domain for everything conference-related. (At the moment it's just pointing at the relevant posts from here but soon, no doubt, it'll be a cornucopia of delights.)

And though it's just a placeholder I quite like the simplicity of just interesting and the suggestion that there might, maybe, be an interesting2008. (And I like the idea of interestingnorth too.) But huge thanks for the ideas and enthusiasm, I'm mulling everything now and I'll catch up with everyone who's volunteered to speak (or volunteered someone else). And Lloyd, I'd love to talk about something Open Space. I'll get in touch.

And, I have to say thanks to Innocent for coming aboard as first sponsor, earning them official status as Platinum Fruit Refreshment In Bottles Partner.

Thank you everyone. This is exciting. (Anyone know if there's a dead simple, ordering, payment, ticketing, mailing system?)

a possible date for your diary

The TED conference has just finished in Monterery. Sounds like a fantastic lot of speakers. I was lucky enough to go last year and I'd put aside the money to go again this year. But, a while ago, it occurred to me that I could take that money and we could maybe organise a conference of our own here in the UK, which might be even more interesting. Or at least easier to get to.

So this is the plan:

We've booked the Conway Hall for the 16th of June. Which is a Saturday. It'll be about £20 to get in. I want to make it something almost anyone can afford.

The plan is to have all sorts of speakers speak about all sorts of stuff. Not brands, advertising, blogging and twitter but interesting, unexpected, original things. I'm hoping to find fascinating people and to just ask them to speak about something they care about. I want to replicate the experience of clicking from one really good blog to another, ranging across sciences, arts, musics, jokes and whatever. There will be 20 minute slots and 3 minute slots. Some people will play music or sing. And some people who can't be there will be asked to send three minute videos. Perhaps. I reckon we can squeeze a lot of interestingness into a day. And then have a party afterwards.

But it'll all be down to the goodwill and enthusiasm of the speakers anyway, because I won't be able to pay any of them.

The hall is paid for, seats and presentation stuff will be paid for. But that's the 'TED money' soaked up.  After that I'm hoping to find sponsors to chip in, not to pay money and put up a logo but to provide things like wifi, smoothies, or cakes. And it'd be great if someone would like to film it properly, or podcast it, or do nice drawings. I don't think we'll be having name badges, branded pens or lime cordial so we won't worry about them.

I think that's about it for now. It's June the 16th. If you think you might come it'd be nice if you'd comment below, just so we can start to get a sense of numbers. And I'll soon get round to setting up paypal for tickets and upcoming and all that sort of thing. If you can think of someone we should ask to speak, that'd be great too. Or maybe you want to speak? I've already asked some people but I think they all thought I was joking so I'm going to ask again now I've written this.

And we need a name for it. I'm not sure The Conference Of Interestingness is good enough. Any suggestions?