interesting speakers

This is quite a daunting moment for me. This is where I find out whether my definition of interesting matches with yours. I think some people were expecting a conference about digital marketing or something. But as you'll see, Interesting2007 is not going to be that. If anyone wants a refund just let me know, and that's fine, I believe Eventbrite is fully able to cope. And I hope someone will take your place.

I should also point out that this is not a definitive list of speakers. Partly because I've not finished rounding up speakers yet, partly because not everyone's got back to me with a rough idea of title and partly because I'm convinced that I've asked some people to speak and then forgotten to email them again. So if you think I've asked you to speak and then not followed-up then a) please let me know and b) I'm sorry.

Anyway, here, in alphabetical order are the speakers thus far lined up and confirmed for the conference.

And could I say that I'm massively grateful to everyone that's agreed to speak at this thing. I think it's going to completely bloody fascinating. And, hopefully, after you see the list of stuff you'll agree.

These are the people doing the shorter things - 3-5 minutes. (And in some cases verging on 10). A high level of technical difficulty but often the most rewarding bits.

Adrian Gunn Wilson will talk about how to split a log with an axe. (He warns us that this will include gory pictures.)

Andrew Hovells - will give us a talk entitled - 'Doing something well (or I'm useless at football so I swim)'.

Diego Rodriguez is going to talk about Unabashed Gearhead Gnarlyness. (I can't quite believe he's coming all the way over for this, but he says he is, so I'm very chuffed about that.)

Emma Holloway - will talk about 'Ideal Homes? Designing the British Mobile Home'.

Matthew d'Ancona will talk about 'something like: From Citizen Kane to YouTube.'

Phil Gyford will talk about 'something to do with acting'.

Seb Palmer is going to talk about how the world looks to a skateboarder.

Sophie Dollar - will talk about a haphephobic French fruit painter. With a couple of slides.

Tim Milne - is going to talk about the magic of printing.

Tom Lewis Reynier will talk about knots.

Tommi Brem will give a 3 minute talk currently entitled: 'People have no trouble imagining infinity. They have trouble imagining finiteness.' Though he promises a shorter title in due course.

These are the people doing the longer things; 15-20 minutes, so a bit of room for them to stretch out but you're still comfortable in the knowledge that if they're not doing it for you, you're never more than 20 minutes away from something else.

Anne Ward will talk about something like 'how the web is reclaiming niceness.'

Chris Heathcote will be speaking and cooking about EBCB for the 21st century, and probably launching forkbot.

Dave Funkypancake will show photos and talk about something probably including various bollards.

Deborah Khan will give us 'why do we listen?'

Fiona Romeo will talk about the museum visitor as performer, based on her experiences putting together The Science Of Spying at the Science Museum.

Grant McCracken hasn't decided what to talk about yet, but I'm hoping to persuade him to tell us of his experiences going on Oprah.

Jack Schulze is planning to talk about comics and pictures that know they're being looked at.

Jennifer Lyon Bell will talk about 'what makes a sex film sexy' using her own experience as an erotic director. She may be accompanied by Jeffre Jackson.

Matt Jones will be talking about 'The Vernacular of the Spectacular': a wünderkammerkaze ride round the (possible) future(s) of bits, cities, rocks, robots and shoes.

Rebecca Northam is going to talk about Ibsen or The Muppets, or possibly both.

Richard Wilson is going to talk about how TV gets made, and show us a rather splendid personal project. But since he's got the first show of a new programme going out the next day, he might not make it.

Tom Armitage is going to talk about pipes and tubes. He might use this to talk about the joy of infrastructure at large. He is finding it hard to resist calling this talk "A Series of Tubes", but he's just about holding up.

And that's the list so far. As you'll see it's a lot to pack in, and I might have to delicate conversations with a few people about shaving off some minutes, but I think we can make it all work.

I have more people to prevail upon, to persuade them to contribute. We will also have musical and video guests. And some small-scale fun surprises. More announcements on all that to come.

(I'm going to add this list to the wiki and will update it as people get added, come up with a better title or decide to chicken out. And I'll post significant updates here. Check out the attendees page, by the way, there are going to be some dead interesting people in the audience too. If you're coming, why not add yourself to the list?)

I'm staggered and delighted that 300 of you bought tickets without the first clue about who's going to speak at this thing. So I really hope this list excites you. It excites me and I'm going to love listening to all these people. I hope you feel the same.

Comments

[doug]

exciting box ticked Russell.

dead glad I got my ticket. can't wait.

[Colman]

Can you make my cheque payable to 'Paul H. Colman', cheers.

[zeroinfluencer]

Bravo!

[Mark Earls]

Great stuff. Re more bands to be confirmed: Happy to help, as ever. And not just Herd!

[NP]

Perfect. Hope no one minds me wearing my speedos.

[claire Gates]

Excellent. Looking forward to finding out how to split a log.

[Justin Renard]

Is it too late to get tickets?

[TomLR]

Surely this is the chance to get Bobby Davro up on my chin ? Can anyone do cardboard cut - outs ?

[Rozza]

Robots, knots, pipes, and bollards. Ace. This promises to be a meeting of interesting minds like never before. Please let me know if I can help out.

[Lee McEwan]

If anyone cancels ... I'm in.

[beeker]

Had a dream last night that this was at the Astoria, with Massive Attack and De La Soul supporting. (Bobby Davro was nowhere to be seen, sadly).

[TomLR]

I've got an idea for some music - Russell, can I do a musical knots interlude and get a remote performance up on the AV from a partner ?

[Wil]

What a great line up! If there are any spare tickets, would love to go.

[mc]

I'm on holiday - any chance of some podcast? or is that not cool*?

I realize I'm over 35 and still saying cool

[Alby]

This sounds 10 awesome (out of 10). I am insanely jealous that I never got a ticket.

[david]

sounds... interesting :)

can i come?
managed to find 16th of june... london? should be able to make that...
is the list fixed?
how can i pay?
can i contribute???

2020worldpeace :)