The Interesting Conferences

The Interesting Conferences started with this post in March 2007. I’d been inspired by TED but wanted to do something cheaper, closer to home and less, well, zealous. So, I booked the Conway Hall, asked some people to speak and hoped people would want to come. It seemed to go well.

We did it again in 2008 and 2009 but had a break in 2010. (We had PaperCamp 2 instead). Fortunately in that year the Boring folk started up, giving the world’s journalists the chance to say that Interesting had been cancelled due to lack of interest.

We did more in 2011 and 2016 and 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025.

We also managed to inspire other, similar, events around the world. I can’t take much credit for those, they did them all themselves.

In 2025 I wrote a bit of background about the whole thing on my blog.

Interesting is a DIY conference of short presentations about things our speakers find interesting.

It’s not work, it’s not professional, it’s not networking.
Talks are 10 minutes
You can use PPT or something else or nothing
The speakers are paid. The audience is lovely. The venue is amazing.

Would you like to speak? It can be about whatever you fancy. Something you’re deeply into or something you’d just like to explore. The best topics are ones that give our speakers joy. Our audience is not looking for insights or life hacks or to be inspired. They want to see someone talk about something they’re interested in. Perhaps with a couple of jokes. We cram a lot of talks into an evening so there’s always something happening and there’s not so much pressure on any individual speaker. Our unofficial motto is ‘you’re never more than 10 minutes away from something else’.

Previous topics have included:

How to split a log with an axe
What makes a sex film sexy, a feminist perspective
Knots
A geophysical survey of World of Warcraft’
Why horses are scared of crisp packets’
The race to be the first craft to sail faster than 50 knots
Stan Laurel’s Dad
How to make cheese
5 minutes of paper
Guerrilla gardening
A brief history of the piano
How to do Morse Code
What’s interesting about certain sports if you hate the actual game play
Ponies I Have Loved; Both Real and Imagined
Everything You Know About Nuclear Power is Wrong
How to conduct a symphony orchestra
1970s UK girls comics, particularly the hilarious role psychological violence played in the genre
Molecular gastronomy, wine tasting with actual wine
A close reading of Julianna Margulies’ hair and make-up in The Good Wife
Swedish Rules for Sex and the Supernatural
Why flyknit is the most revolutionary thing since sliced bread
The importance of watching TV’
What it feels like to preserve memories and talk about dementia and death on social media, whilst still occasionally making people laugh
Hippies, synthesisers, giant squid and the military industrial complex
The Sierra Leone National Railway Museum
Tampons and Tampon Club
Collecting the complete short stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald
Sugar highs
Logbooks: Collecting the uncollectable
A Series of Tubes
Shopping Lists: Finding the story in the everyday
Pensions and the end of the world
Simón Bolívar
You seem nice, but I might have to kill you: Brief Observations on Misophonia
Elsie de Wolfe: Optimism and white paint
A systemic approach to coolness 1974-2024
The Vernacular of the Spectacular
The zoetrope turntable
Ibsen and The Muppets

I’m especially keen to hear from people who don’t normally do this kind of thing. The crowd is really supportive so it’s a great occasion to do your first public talk. Lots of our speakers have never spoken from a stage before. We can help with prep, rehearsal, calming words and warm beverages. And if a different format would help we can do that too. You can present on video. Or bring a friend or a gang with you. Or get someone to interview you. Whatever you fancy.

Diamond Geezer summed up the 2016 version like this.

Over the years we’ve definitely over represented white men. We’ve had a lot. Bless them for always volunteering. But if you’re not one I’d especially like to hear from you.

London

Elsewhere

Other

May 17, 2025