For the last couple of months, whenever I've bumped into someone particularly interesting, I've asked them if they'd like to speak at Interesting2008. What I haven't necessarily done is write that fact down anywhere. That's the first reason this list is incomplete. So, if you think I've asked you to talk and you're not on this list, and you've not heard from me recently, will you get in touch and remind me please?
The second reason is slightly less pathetic. It's just that some people don't necessarily know whether they'll be able to make it or not. So I'm not including them so as not to raise false hopes.
Having said that, here's a list of people who are almost definitely going to talk, in no particular order.
Leisa Reichelt isn't exactly sure what she's going to talk about, but it'll be something to do with perception.
Andrew Walkingshaw promises he'll have a title / subject for his really soon.
Michael Johnson is so organised that he's already written a blog post about his talk, though I'm still not 100% sure what it means.
Kim Plowright originally volunteered to do something along the lines of her OpenTech talk, but, since it's been accepted there she's going to have to come up with something else.
James Bridle says he's going to talk about booze: "in part inspired by that Clay Shirky bit on gin (expanding on and arguing with it), some chat about booze and civilisation, work being the curse of the drinking classes, and so on. No title as such yet. Something in latin, perhaps. In vino civitas."
Simon James and Ken Hollings are going to do a live performance of Welcome To Mars. A story of weird science, strange events and even stranger beliefs with live moogery and noises.
George Oates doens't know what she's going to talk about yet, though she admits to getting a little nervous about it.
Andrew Dick says there's no digital manifestation of him I can link to, but that he's going to talk about "the curious case of the sleepless nights, or something."
Phil Gyford is going to have another bash at what he did last time, which didn't quite come off, but was fascinating. And I'm going to make him come back every year until it works.
Anna Pickard says: "I *think* I would like to speak on the relative funniosity of some words over others, portmanteaux and things. Probably. It is only half formed."
Daniel Raven-Ellison is going to talk about 'Wire Wool Kids'. Which I think is the only proper title I've had from anyone, so thus far, he's winning.
We don't know what Matt Webb's going to talk about yet. We may not know once he's finished, but years from now, it'll fall into place and we'll realise he was right all along.
Gavin Starks has raised all sorts of possible topics from "Acoustic Cosmology" to measuring the energy footprint of everything in the world. Not sure what he'll settle on, it's bound to be good anyway.
I can't resist quoting the email that Max Gadney sent me about what he's planning on talking about:
"What it is I like. How I got into it. An example of an exciting area (the crazy knife stuff) that turns out to be only part of the picture. My ruminations on the whole picture (generational mental models about the war - and us on a turning point - loads of sven hassell covers! etc). Some examples of my new thinking about the whole picture."
Which, coincidentally relates to what I'm hoping Jenny Owen will talk about - Churchill.
And, I told a lie earlier, someone else sent me a proper title - Gemma Teed is going to talk about "Lions, Tigers and Bears - why horses are scared of crisp packets".
Max (see above) also helped persuaded Matt Dent (yes, that Matt Dent) to come and talk. Not sure what about yet.
Excitingly, Steve Hardy is coming all the way from Montreal to speak, which is bloody good of him. He says he's leaning towards addressing "What, specifically, do generalists do?" but he's not certain. Given that I've just discovered he's Marketing Director for WowWee I'm rather hoping he's going to bring some robots with him.
Blimey. That's a lot of people already isn't it? Hope you're all planning on being there until midnight.
Like I say, there are more names to come, some musical fun to announce and all sorts of desperate pleas for sponsors and help will undoubtedly follow as the enormity of doing this whole thing again begins to dawn on me.
But right now, having typed that list out, I'm bloody excited about the whole thing. If, for some reason, you're less excited now and want to get rid of your ticket you can go back to eventbrite and get your money back, no questions asked, or pop over to the ticket swapping wiki and someone there might snap it up.
Oh, just remembered another, Roo's going to do three minutes about Lego.
