Late for the party? Totally. But at least I was there.
So Interesting 08 happened a few weeks ago (June 21st 2008) at Conway Hall in London and life has been so hectic that I’ve not had time to talk about it til now. Tom Hopkins blogged his thoughts on it as did Colm “Gold Medal Limbo Dancer” Brophy and Alexia.
The crowd: (Photo by Bowbrick)
So what is it? Well it’s a gathering of people that know Russell Davies and who go up on a stage and talk about something they think is interesting for about 3 minutes. Some got 6 mins though! Lots and lots of presentations based on the tastes of these random folks. And it really worked. The talks were all over the place and so brought in new areas for most people. The youngfella who designed the new UK coinage also gave a talk. And the chap that did that amazing Radiohead remix was there too. I went to enjoy myself and to also wonder could we have something like that here too. I think the rules stated no talking blogs, twitter or technology as such.
It was amazingly informal and as Tom above noted the crowd were patient and understanding and amazingly behaved. We gave everyone attention and appreciated their effort. No grub was provided, the attitude being you could find a local cafe at lunch. There was tea and coffee but again it was a help yourself attitude. The whole thing was very English. From the country hall feel to the building, to the bunting, to the singing (yes a sing song), to the tea and nice biscuits and the overall nice to be nice attitude. I loved it.
Roo Reynolds gave the first talk on Lego and also pointed out all the other talks in this post.
There’s also a Rememble Interesting 2008 media timeline.
In the pub after I got to talk to the amazing Dave Funkypancake. Who takes photos. A lot of photos.
Will McInnes. The Robin Hood of social media and analytics.
Also met the rockin Annie Mole who has a blog on the London Underground. Sorry to be all transport geeky but what a great idea for a blog and no wonder it’s hugely popular. Oh and I’m subbed and finding brilliant brilliant stuff on it.
Josie got herself a big chunky tattoo made with marker too. As one does.
So dya think we could have an Interesting for Ireland? What would you talk about?
As anyone who was at the darklight festival may have seen, I’m a bit of a warcraft fan, so I really enjoyed this talk http://www.viddler.com/explore/rooreynolds/videos/26/
I’d love to see one of these in Ireland. Think I’d talk about either the failure of politics to attract young people, or the works of Colm ToibÃn.
Dunno why either of those ideas popped into my head, mind you….
I would talk about neighbours, not the Australian drama, the people who live next door! Could also talk about the works of Gary Larson.
Politics? No think so. * yawn *
I’d love to attend one of these. And we could definitely pull one off in Ireland. Why the heck not?
Not sure how I won that gold medal – it’s not even on my entry for the attendees wiki. But I’ll take it.
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Eww.. politics.. Sorry, not interested. Interesting is meant to be fun.
There are so many things I’d love to talk on. I think I’d change my mind a hundred times over by the time it rattled by, but here’s some ideas floating about:
– the curse of Lolcats – artichokes – being obsessed with the sound of a SLR lens – revisiting those comics of our distance past – my grandmother’s tall tales of giants, boiled children and civil war – psychology and smells – the Walkman & the birth of portable music.
I could go on and on. Of course, the real question is would anyone find them interesting? 🙂
Thanks so much Damien – it was a pleasure to meet you (and Alexia) too.
I think a Interesting in Ireland would be a rocking craic 😉