Russell Davies

Tidying up interesting

Well, that seemed to go OK didn't it? I have lots to write about how grateful I am to everyone who came and everyone who spoke, but I'll get to that later. In the meantime Mr Geezer has written a splendid summary of the whole event with all the links and details you might ever need. Very good of him.

Done

Interesting tonight

Here's the rough outline for this evening.

A couple of people aren't able to talk this evening, for entirely reasonable reasons, and Alby's decided his talk is to depressing to go last ( that information really makes you want to come doesn't it?) so we've had a bit of a rejig.

I was a bit worried that we'd struggle to squeeze everything in but now there's a bit more room to breathe, which is good.

Doors open, milling around: 6.30pm

Announcements regarding toilets and fire exits: 6.50pm

7.00    Abbey Kos - wine tasting - with actual wine

 

7.10    Rachel Coldicutt - 'A close reading of Julianna Margulies' hair and make-up in The Good Wife'

 

7.15    Lucy Blackwell - 'The story of my life through calendars'

 

7.20    Mags Blackwell -  'Do you listen?'

 

7.25    Rujuta Teredesai - 'Agile for Social Development'

 

7.30    Ella Fitzsimmons - Northern Europeans and Gnomes

 

7.35    Nat Buckley - "Why flyknit is the most revolutionary thing since sliced bread"

 

7.40    Ade Adewunmi - 'The importance of watching TV'

 

7.45    Tom Whitwell - 'Hippies, synthesisers, giant squid and the military industrial complex'

 

Quick break: 8.00pm - 8.15pm

 

Second session: 8.15pm - 9.15pm

 

8.15    Kim Plowright - 'What it feels like to preserve memories and talk about dementia and death on social media, whilst still occasionally making people laugh (and how her Mum would’ve had her guts for garters if she'd realised what she was up to)'

 

8.25    Tim Dunn - The Sierra Leone National Railway Museum

 

8.30    Lisa Rajan - The story behind Tara Binns

 

8.35    Diego Maranan - Getting "people more aware of their bodies through clothing (and will try to convince people why body awareness matters in the first place"

 

8.40    Alby Reid - Polonium Poisoning

 

8.50    Helen Castor - Digging up Kings

 

8.55    Lauren Brown - (Not sure yet)

 

9.05  Alice Bartlett - Tampons and (possibly) Tampon Club

 

Bring pencils! Bring water!

Interesting practicalities

It's tomorrow! We kick-off at 7pm. Aiming to be done by 9.30.

Speakers:

Please come and find me when you arrive, so I know you're there. Then all you'll need to do is come up to the stage about 15 minutes before your talk so we can sort out tech etc. The timetable will be roughly the same as this one, with a few minor tweaks.

Attendees:

It's going to be hot. We're not providing any drinks, so you might want to bring some water.

You might find a small beaker of liquid on your chair when you get there. Don't drink this! It's required for the first talk (don't worry it's not Alby's talk about polonium poisoning).

Bring a pencil!

I'll confess to feeling nervous about tomorrow. Back when we first did these things expectations were very low and we only just managed to clear the bar. It was remarkable enough that some random person was able to just put on a conference without any apparent ability or experience. That seems more common place these days, which is a good thing, but I hope you're not all expecting too much. Ah well, we'll see. Tomorrow!

 

 

Punting on the Bunting

I was just looking for an old Interesting picture, saw this and realised - I've not got any bunting. It's all in storage somewhere. Too far away for Thursday anyway. Ah well.

Perhaps it's as well. It's time to move on. Bunting is so 2007.

Awful Business

I'm fascinated by the business of fashion. My two favourite movies are probably The September Issue and Valentino: The Last Emperor. Fashion is so resolutely, purely only about the ephemeral and the made up. It's the ultimate creative industry because there's no substance to it whatsoever. Everything's invented and quixotic. It's all nonsense. And therefore it's all incredibly human.

So, fashion gets to a lot of creative industry innovation early on (see earlier post) but it's also the most obliviously unaware of the real world outside its bubble. People will say the most awful amoral stuff to encapsulate an aesthetic. Witness, from the same article:

“I think your story up there is really strong,” Aybar said. “It’s, like, Undernourished Retards—in a beautiful way.” He liked the “living-under-the-bridge vibe.”

 

Armando Iannucci Presents a PowerPoint

I'd not seen this before Tom pointed it out to me. It's a tremendous illustration of the deadening effect of the 'default' style of doing a presentation. Also an illustration of how bad it can be to use slides to decorate your point - the relationship between the words and the pictures can obscure things and kill them as well as help explain them and bring them to life.

And it's funny,

This is by everyone*

Something about how 'creative direction' is changing. (from the New Yorker)

* "with authority"

The algorithms, they are not subtle

Interesting things

There's only a week to go! Still at the Conway Hall. Still kicking off at 7.

Some things to know:

1. I've worked out how to do refunds (because someone asked) so, if you can't come, just email and you can have your money back.

2. If anyone can turn up early (around 6.30) and help out that'd be great. There's going to be some stuff that needs handing out and putting on chairs. That kind of thing.

3. Rachel requests that you bring a pencil along for her talk (one each, not one between you) ideally a brown pencil. Don't worry if you forget, we'll have some, but, well, don't forget, I'm not made of pencils.

4. Please remember, this is just a bunch of people talking in a room, it's not going to like some highly polished TED thing. It may overrun. There may be unfortunate pauses. At least one person will talk slightly longer than we all want them too. There will be no lanyards, no USB sticks and leaflets in branded bags, no tiny hamburgers.

(In fact, that's true, we're not providing any refreshments, you might want to bring drinks)

If you're after something more glamorous please see point 1 above.

Otherwise - all systems go. See you in a week! Bring a pencil!