Russell Davies

interesting material

Well, stuff's beginning to arrive. We've got Rod's splendid sketches, I think this is my favourite:

And we've got a ton of other stuff that people left to be scanned and uploaded:

But I think the most talked about and captured thing so far has been Mr Rhodri Marsden's performance of Wichita Lineman on the saw. You can hear a good audio version on the sidebar of the wiki, Matt has video here, but I think the most complete version is Roo's.

picture from Tim. It's all just beginning to sink in. It was a good day wasn't it?
 

interesting continues

Well, it happened. Blimey. The picture above is something else that was happening at the same time in the Conway Hall, and without knowing what it means, it feels like a good summary of our conference too. Thanks to everyone for everything. More comprehensive thanks and links to everyone and all the video and podcasts and all sorts will start showing up once we've got it all edited and etced. But here are some little odds and ends that need tidying up first.

Firstly, a bunch of very nice people who couldn't be there on the day made videos for us to show, but we just couldn't squeeze them into the day. So, assuming it's OK with them, I thought I'd put them up here instead. The first is this rather special Interesting2007 edition of Stefan's Dailly Monsters:

interesting monster from russelldavies on Vimeo

Secondly, Interesting2007 media is beginning to arrive, and it's all capturing the flavour rather nicely. There are the latest pictures on flickr tagged Interesting2007. Curtis has set up an Interesting2007 flickr group. And Tim's made a page on the wiki for links to pictures and video here.

interesting help and tonight

Well, the goodie bags are mostly packed, the bunting is mostly collected, things are mostly ready, apart from all the things that aren't. So, if you were thinking of coming over to The Design Conspiracy tonight, don't worry, we're mostly done.)

Tonight; we're going to be at the NFT bar on the South Bank from about 6.30. More details via twitter. (Is that what it's still called? I haven't been there for ages.)

interesting things

Some reminders and thoughts if you're coming along:

1. We're not providing lunch. You'll have to bring your own or go to one of the local cafes and pubs. There are some nice ones but we're not sure exactly which ones are open on a Saturday. We have spoken to the man who runs the cafe in Red Lion Square and warned him to expect some extra custom so he should be ready. He's very excited. And, while we're mentioning it, we're not providing fancy coffee, just a big urn, some milk, some tea bags and some instant coffee. So if you want a foamed milk drink you'd better get one on the way. And you could bring me a cappuccino if you think of it.

2. I think there's going to be enough room in the hall for a bit of lounging on the floor down the front. So if you think 7 hours in a chair might be a bit too much bring a cushion or something and prepare for some lounging.

3. We're going to start at 11am. So please be there by at least 10.50 so we can run you through the elaborate signing in procedure. Probably around 10.30 is ideal. You're welcome to arrive earlier, you can mingle and chat in the hall, or in Red Lion Square, if you'd like to help out then anytime after 8.30 and we'll find you something to do.

4. As I've said before, no physical tickets are going to land on your doorstep between now and Saturday. You should have had an email confirmation from eventbrite, print that off and bring it along.

5. And there's still time to add yourself to the event wiki, introduce yourself to your fellow attendees in a digital-stylee.

6. If anyone has time to help on Friday, we're going to be at The Design Conspiracy from 10.30am onwards. Come along if you can. If it's later than 2.30 maybe check the Interesting Twitter to make sure we're still there.

7. There'll be some kind of drinks get together on Friday evening too, down on the South Bank somewhere, watch here or the Interesting Twitter for details.

interesting twitter

Adam and Mario have very kindly handcrafted us an Interesting2007 twitterfeed. They are saints. Big thanks to them. This means that we have a twitter-based backchannel for the conference. Not 100% sure what we might do with it, but I'm sure all sorts of utility will emerge. I can certainly imagine using it to summon you all back from lunch and maybe to organise pre-conference drinks on the Friday. How about on the South Bank somewhere?

For the less digitally-inclined, in fact for everyone, we're also going to have a post-it based backchannel stuck on the wall.)

Adam's instructions are here:

So you want the 'interested' to see your twitterings about interesting2007? Here's how:

1) Get a twitter account
2) Add russell davies as your friend. Don't worry, you can always delete him later ;^)
3) Write 'interesting2007' (without quotes) at the start of your tweet. That copies your tweet to interesting
4) To follow the interesting2007 conversation, add interesting as your friend or subscribe to this rss feed
5) That's it!

Love adam and mario

interesting exchange

There are no tickets left. However, if you suddenly realise that you can't come, or can't be bothered, please let me know because I have a long list of people who will gladly take your ticket off you and I can connect you to each other.

And, remember, everyone who's coming - there are no physical tickets, print off your confirmation from eventbrite and bring that along.

interesting shirts

If you want Ben and The Design Conspiracy to make you an Interesting2007 t-shirt you've got to get your shirts to them by the 13th. Which means putting it in the post now. If not before. That is all.

interesting help

Nine days to go, more and more of my day is now consumed with a gentle undertow of mild panic about all the things I might have forgotten and all the things that might go wrong. It's like whenever I go on holiday and spend the whole time thinking I've probably left the bath running at home.

Anyway, this post is an appeal for volunteers and help. Many of you have kindly offered to help and this is where I get more specific about taking you up on it.

Friday 15th - daytime

Most of Friday is going to be about preparation, mostly getting goodie bags packed and things like that. The Design Conspiracy have generously offered their fashionable Covent Garden offices for us to do that, anyone who can spare an hour during the Friday will be most welcome. If you could let me know below if you're up for that I'll pass on the precise details, once I've thought of them.

Friday 15th - evening

There's going to be a few people in town specfically for Interesting and Grant McCracken has suggested it would be nice if we had some kind of get together opportunity on the Friday evening. He's right, it would be. Would anyone like to organise/host it? Probably just drinks and chat somewhere? Any thoughts on this gratefully received.

Saturday 16th - morning

We can't actually get access to the hall until 8.30 on the Saturday morning. We can't do anything there the night before. So if we're going to be ready to go at 11 we've got quite a lot to get done. We've got to get the chairs out, get the PA and projector and stuff all sorted, put the kettle on, all that sort of thing. So if anyone wants to help with lugging boxes, moving chairs or pulling cables I'd be very grateful. I also suspect James might need help with the folksy craft stall/installation. (UPDATE: Actually, turns out James is fine, but still...) If you turn up at 8.30 and do something useful I'll buy you a bacon sarnie and a cup of tea at the cafe in the square.

Does that make sense? If you're up for helping out please comment below or email me russell at russelldavies.com and let me know when you might be around.

(PS - I found the picture above by typing Interesting2007 into flickr. I was expecting to find and use another of Ben and TDC's logo experiments but there instead was this splendid punch card thing that Simon's used to make some sounds for us. Marvelous.)

there's something in the air

When I started thinking about Interesting2007 Dan Hill was one of the first people I asked to speak. He said no, which made me sad, but he has good reasons; he's got a whole lot of life going on and he's one of the four bloggers behind Postopolis, happening in New York right now. Looking at Dan's live blogging it looks brilliant and I love the look of the place, very sweaty and architectural. Plus from the look of it they've all printed off their blogs and stuck them on the wall which is surprisingly effective. As the mysterious 'we' of Influx Insights points out this kind of smallish, loose, enthusiast-generated event looks like a much better way of doing things than the big, top-down conference. And you can just tell there's going to be much more of this kind of thing. I guess it's mostly just the rest of the world learning from reboot, barcamps, open spaces, unconferences etc but they're good lessons to learn.

(picture from City Of Sound, hope that's OK)

interesting printing

There's clearly something in the air about printing and the post and stuff. Tim Milne is going to be talking about printing at Interesting2007 and he's going to make some nice surprises for us. As part of his talk he'd like to get some people to help out with something, his request is here:

"Ahead of my 'Interesting' talk about printing, I'd like a few people to join in testing how well viral works in an undigital space. To anyone who's interested, I'll send a thing in the mail which will pose a thought "I like printing..." they'd add something (write, draw, print whathaveyou) and send it onto someone else they know (and I don't–and no, they don't all have to be coming to the event) for them to do the same and so on. After half a dozen or so goes around, it'll come back to me in time for the Interesting event on Jun 16th. Full instructions will be on the piece itself and the postage will be paid for."

If you're up for helping out can you please comment below or email me (russell at russelldavies.com) and I'll put you in touch with Tim.