The first batch of tickets for The Story 2012 (which will be on Friday 17th February, at The Conway Hall in London) will go on sale on Monday 26th September, at noon GMT, via our Eventbrite page. This will be a batch of 50 ‘Super Early Bird’ tickets, which I hope will sell out pretty quickly. More batches will be released in the weeks after. Releasing tickets in batches might be frustrating for some of you, but it means I can get certain costs covered that I have to pay in advance, so huge thanks to those of you who buy Super Early Bird or Early Bird tickets – I really couldn’t do the conference without you (or at least, I’d worry a hell of a lot more without these early ticket sales). Here’s the ticket prices:

Super Early Bird (50 tickets) – £35, + £5 donation to Ministry of Stories, +VAT = £48
Early Bird (50 tickets) – £40, + £5 donation to MoS, +VAT = £54
Standard Tickets (200 tickets)  - £45, + £5 donation to MoS, +VAT = £60
Last Chance Tickets (100 tickets) – £50, +£5 donation to MoS, +VAT = £66

There is a slight increase in costs this year, for two reasons. First of all, I’ve left the comfort of working for large broadcasters like Channel 4 & the BBC, and set up Storythings as a company to help people make content and tell stories online. As I don’t have the luxury of a salary, I’ve got to cover a bit of the time it takes me to organise The Story, rather than doing it for free as I have in previous years. Secondly, as Storythings is registered for VAT, I’ve got to charge VAT on ticket sales. Huge apologies for these increases – I’ve tried to make them as small as possible, and I think its still really good value for a day conference that is run without any financial assistance or sponsors. I hope it can stay that way for many years to come.

I’ll be releasing the first few details about speakers for 2012 before tickets go on sale on Monday, so keep your eyes peeled and if you’re not already, follow The Story on Twitter to get news about speakers and tickets first!

Its about this time of year, as summer starts to turn (we actually did get a *bit* of summer in Brighton this year), that I dust down the story machine and begin winding it up for next years’ conference. Due to a recent flurry of activity, and a bit of good fortune, most of the speakers are already confirmed, which must be a record. The venue is booked, and an absolutely brilliant host has agreed to present the day, so I can hunker down in the front row and enjoy it myself.

So the date you need to circle in your diary is Friday, February 17th 2012. It’ll be at The Conway Hall again, and will run from 10-4pm. Expect another line-up of diverse and fascinating speakers, bumping into friends during the breaks, and a pint afterwards in the pub on the corner. Tickets and speakers will be announced later in September.

I can’t wait.

Conway Hall, by Paola Kathuria

First of all, thank you to everyone who came along to the The Story last Friday. It was a fantastic day, made up of three important elements – brilliant speakers, a fantastic venue, and an attentive and engaged audience. So thank you very much for coming along and making it so special.

There has been a lot of brilliant blog posts and photos taken from the event, so I’ve included the ones I’ve seen below. If you have other pictures/comments about the day online, please let me know so I can add them to this list. I’ve been overwhelmed with the response, so thank you again for being so creative and articulate.

In the rush to finish the event last week, I only briefly gave thanks to the people who help me organise the event, so here’s a proper list of the people who made it happen.

First of all the speakers – all of whom were insightful, challenging and inspiring.

Margaret Robertson, for being a fantastic host, and making a difficult job look very easy.

The team of helpers – Richard Ayers, Holly Locke, Gemma Brady, Rebecca Denton, Sarah Pridham, Robin Ray and Anna Pedroza – for making the day run so smoothly

Live Union – for providing an excellent sound system and recording the talks – direct to digital this time, so they’ll be going online soon!

David Rowan at Wired Magazine – for kindly donating 100 copies of Wired to give away at registration

Its going to take a lot of work to live up to this year’s event, but I’m definitely going to do it again. I’ll just take a few months off first…

http://digyourfins.wordpress.com/2011/02/28/love-story/

http://optimi.myzen.co.uk/?p=1963

http://minkette.wordpress.com/2011/02/25/the-story-conference-2011/

http://www.dentsulondon.com/blog/2011/02/21/the-story/

http://pieceofpaperpress.wordpress.com/2011/02/23/taking-a-story-for-a-walk/

http://scrambledup.blogspot.com/2011/02/so-youre-good-storyteller-are-you-good.html

http://blog.eyemagazine.com/?p=3209#more-3209

http://bureauista.com/blog/2011/02/thoughts-on-the-story-2011/

http://timwright.typepad.com/main/2011/02/the-story-using-the-wrong-tools-for-the-job.html

http://blog.vexappeal.com/post/3459875114/the-story-2011

http://www.juliebee.co.uk/2011/02/the-story-2011-the-long-version/

http://storify.com/topfife/the-story-2011

http://www.antonymayfield.com/2011/02/20/glinner-vs-doctorow-notes-from-the-story-pt-i/

http://maryhamilton.co.uk/2011/02/what-shape-is-a-story/

http://www.thisunrealcity.com/blog/?p=298

http://storify.com/betarish/the-story-2011

http://www.feedingthepuppy.com/the-story-from-many-points-of-view

http://matt.me63.com/2011/02/18/small-pieces-loosely-joined-on-the-way-home-from-the-story/

http://documental.ly/the-story

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mattward/sets/72157626083232058/

http://maryhamilton.co.uk/2011/02/zombies-and-stories/

http://theenglishholidayclub.com/2011/02/19/the-story-takeaway/

http://mafunyaneblog.wordpress.com/2011/02/19/storytellers-objects-and-the-power-of-stories-notes-from-the-story-2011/

http://understandingdifference.blogspot.com/2011/02/story.html?spref=tw

http://www.flickr.com/photos/evalottchen/sets/72157625957717847/with/5457093572/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/98389526@N00/sets/72157625955204501/with/5458661366/

http://moerg.wordpress.com/2011/02/20/so-many-tales-the-story-2011/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/paolability/sets/72157626089735446/with/5459091249/

http://linnsovig.com/2011/02/19/the-story-2011-part-1/

Hi all,

Last year, I posted a quick FAQ for everyone coming to The Story, so here is this year’s version. This should answer most of the questions you might have, but if there’s something else you need to know, leave a comment and I’ll get back to you asap.

How do I get to Conway Hall?
The Conway Hall is at 25, Red Lion Square, London, WC1R 4RL. The nearest tube is Holborn, and there is information about bus routes on the Conway Hall’s website.

Is the venue accessible?
There is a street level entrance to Conway Hall on Red Lion Square. The main hall is at the same level, and there is a disabled toilet available. The balcony seating area is not accessible, but we’ll make sure there’s room for everyone with access needs in the main hall. There is also an induction loop in the hall for those with hearing impairments.

What are the best places for tea/coffee/lunch?
We’ll be providing tea and coffee at the breaks in the lobby of the Conway Hall. We won’t be providing lunch, but there are loads of lovely sandwich shops and cafes on Theobalds Rd and Lambs Conduit Way, which are a few steps from The Conway Hall. There’s also a lovely cafe in Red Lion Square itself, and plenty of room to sit and eat in the Square gardens.

What is the hastag for the event?
If you’re tweeting, blogging or uploading photos of the day, please use #thestory2011 as a hashtag. The wifi in The Conway Hall isn’t up to much, though, so feel free to put the phones, ipads and other devices in your bag for the day, and let your mind have some fun on its own for a bit.

I booked a ticket but haven’t got my ticket yet!
Eventbrite should have emailed you a PDF of the ticket as soon as your payment went through. If Paypal still has an old email address for you then it could have been sent there instead. If you still can’t find it, email me with the booking name or email address used and I’ll resend the ticket. We’ll have printed lists of all the bookings on the day, so if you can’t find it at all, just turn up with proof of your identity (this will need to be the name you’ve booked the ticket under) and that’ll be fine.

I bought a ticket but something has come up and I can’t now come
Ach – that’s a pity. The best thing to do would be to leave a comment on this post offering your ticket to someone else – I know a few people have transferred tickets already, and that’s fine – just let me know you won’t be there, and the name of the person who will be coming in your place

Someone booked my ticket for me, and their name is on the ticket
Don’t worry – either email me with the name of the person who booked the ticket and the name you want to change, or just turn up on the day with their ticket and explain it to us on the door. We’ll cross people off by the name we have, so as long as only one person claims each ticket, its fine with us.

Fancy a pint afterwards?
You betcha. I think I’ll need it. The event finishes at 4.00, and its a Friday, so I make that beer o’clock. Last year most of us retired to The Square Pig on the opposite corner of Red Lion Square. So that sounds like a plan again this year.

I can’t make it – are you recording the talks?
Yes – I’m taking an audio feed out from the sound desk, so will try and release the talks as podcasts as soon as I can after the event. I know I said I’d do this last year, but they were recorded to minidiscs, and I’m still slowly converting them… This year, we’re recording straight to digital.

Are you doing a newspaper again this year?
Unfortunately, no. I wanted to do something different this year, so I’ve asked the Hoxton St Monster Supply shop (aka the Ministry of Stories) to set up a temporary store in the foyer instead, as I want to raise as much money as possible for them. I’ve also thought about making a book afterwards, maybe on Lulu or Blurb, with transcripts of the 2010 and 2011 events. Does this sound like a good idea? Would you buy one if we did?

I think that’s it. If there’s anything else you need to know, please leave a comment below. See you next Friday!

So, its one week until The Story, and all the last minute preparations and speaker wranglings are nearly completed. The weather looks like its going to be sunny, but cold, so make sure you bring a coat – The Conway Hall is lovely, but more like a church than a comfy conference venue.

Here’s the running order for the day – we’ll start and finish very promptly, so don’t be late! The eagle-eyed amongst you will notice one change – Paula LeDieu from the BFI can’t join us now, but I’m very glad to say that composer and sound artist Nick Ryan has stepped in to take her place. Nick will be in conversation with Paul Bennun from Somethin Else, talking about sound design, storytelling, and their recent audio-only iPhone game Papa Sangre.

Also – the Ministry of Stories will have a stall in the foyer of the venue all day, selling their beautiful monster supplies product fresh from their Hoxton St store. So if you’d like to pick up some limited edition stories from writers like Nick Hornby and Zadie Smith and at the same time raise more money for this excellent project, make sure you bring along some extra cash.

Look forward to seeing you next Friday!

9.20      Doors Open
10.00    Welcome – Margaret Robertson
10.05     Ministry of Stories
10.20     Matt Adams from Blast Theory
10.40     Adam Curtis
11.00    Coffee
11.20     Karl James
11.40     Cornelia Parker
12.00     Phil Gyford
12.20    Lunch
13.20     Tim Kring
13.40     Paul Bennun & Nick Ryan
14.00     Mary Hamilton
14.20    Coffee
14.40     Lucy Kimbell
15.00     Martin Parr
15.20     Graham Linehan & Cory Doctorow
15.40     Mark Stevenson
16.00     End – Thanks!

Blimey. Those last few tickets went very quickly, and we’re now officially sold out!

A few people have been in touch already to ask if there is a waiting list for returns. Last year, I asked people who had tickets and now couldn’t go to leave a comment on the ‘How Can I Get A Ticket’ page, so that other people can get in touch with them. I’ll regularly look at the page and try to connect people, but if you do it all by yourself, then please send me an email to let me know the name changes on the ticket so I can make the adjustments for registration on the day.

Thanks!

Its the 19th January today, which means its less than a calendar month until The Story on Feb 18th, and as of the time I’m writing this, there are only 5 tickets left. So thank you to everyone for buying a ticket so far – it means we’ve raised nearly £2000 for The Ministry of Stories, which is fantastic news. I managed to pop into The Ministry in Hoxton St last week to meet Ben and the other Ministers, and discuss what they can do at The Story. I’m pleased to say that they’ll be bringing their Monster Supplies store, full of products like the tin of Escalating Panic pictured above, to The Story to raise even more money for The Minstry. So please bring along some extra cash if you want to buy these gorgeous objects, filled with stories by the likes of Nick Hornby and Zadie Smith.

Its just over a month now till The Story 2011 (its Friday, February 18th – if you haven’t got a ticket, GET ONE NOW! as there’s only a handful left!) so here’s the last speakers and some of the interesting things they’ve been up to.

First of all – the last speaker will be Blast Theory, the brilliantly innovative mobile game/performance/art company who have done lots of fantastic and award-winning projects over the last few years. They will be talking about their approach to narrative, audiences and mobile tech, and showing some of their work over the last decade. Hopefully, this will include the brilliant Day Of The Figurines, and Ivy4Evr, a recent experimental SMS drama they made for us at Channel 4 Education. Blast Theory know more than almost anyone I know about storytelling over mobile tech, and how to work with an audience that is simultaneously absent, yet intimately connected to the work.

Secondly, the session with Graham Linehan will be an ‘In Conversation’ with none other than Cory Doctorow, who kicked off the very first The Story last February. I can’t think of someone better to talk with Graham about the process of writing, being online and how to engage and collaborate with your fans over social media.

Finally, some of our speakers are launching books, etc at the moment. Mark Stevenson’s book An Optimist’s Guide To The Future is released TODAY! So go buy a copy now so you can get a sneak preview of the amazing experiences he’ll be talking about in February. Tim Etchells, a speaker at The Story last year, has recently launched Vacuum Days, a daily list of imaginary events occuring around the world. The format and caustic humour will be familiar to anyone who saw Tim’s contribution to the newspaper we produced for the event last year. Fantastic stuff.

Hello,

There has been a significant pause in updates on The Story, mainly because Oct/Nov is when lots of crunchy stuff like booking venues, talking to tech support and finalising speakers gets done. So apologies for the radio silence. We’re now booked up for speakers, so I can announce the last few who will be gracing the Conway Hall stage.

But first, a reminder that £5 from every ticket sold for The Story will be donated to The Ministry of Stories, a fantastic project in Hoxton based on Dave Eggers’ 826 foundation. The MoS launched last week in Hoxton, and has been getting fantastic publicity all over the media, including MoS Ambassador Nick Hornby on Radio 4 and a visit to No 10! As we’re a conference all about storytelling, MoS is clearly something we love and want to support as much as we can, and we’re hoping some of the ministers will be able to come along on the day and talk about the work they’re doing with young budding storytellers. So buy a ticket now!

On with the speakers:

Mark Stevenson is a comedian, author and futurologist who has spent the last year or so researching and writing his new book An Optimist’s Tour of The Future. The book is based on his belief that there are always two ways to tell stories about the future – a pessimistic one, which is often the easiest to find, and an optimistic one. He’ll be talking about his astonishing experiences, from underwater government meetings in The Maldives to doing stand-up comedy about Neuro-Anatomy at Harvard. I’m *really* looking forward to hearing him talk at The Story.

Adam Curtis is a documentary film maker who has created some of the most original and challenging documentaries of the last few decades. His films dig deep into the stories and propaganda of the twentieth century, weaving complex interconnections between the ideas, people and culture that have defined our times, and preserved the power of our elites. His ongoing blog for BBC uses the BBC archive to pick apart the back stories to contemporary events, from Mad Med era Madison Avenue to the No 10 ‘Nudge’ unit. There is no-one else right now who is more lucid, challenging and engaging on the subjects of media, propaganda, power and storytelling, so we’re really pleased to have Adam signed up.

Margaret Robertson is the development director for Hide & Seek, and will be this year’s MC for The Story. After Russell Davies’ brilliant hosting last year, I knew it would be tough act to follow, but Margaret is one of the most intelligent, witty and brilliant people I know. What she doesn’t know about storytelling or gaming isn’t worth knowing. In fact, she should probably be speaking, but I’ve asked her instead to be the seemless glue holding the whole event together. No pressure, then Margaret.

So that’s pretty much it! There’s a chance there might be a late special guest, but I think the day is looking amazing as it is. If you’ve got a ticket – thanks! and I look forward to seeing you there. If you haven’t, or if you know someone who hasn’t, please buy one now!

Another Monday, another three speakers to announce, all of whom are awesome. If you haven’t bought your ticket already, you better get one quick…

First up is Karl James, who has worked as a performer and director for many years, most recently working with Tim Crouch on his ground-breaking plays My Arm, An Oak Tree and The Author. Alongside this, he runs The Dialogue Project, using conversation to explore people’s life stories. Some of these conversations have been used as an installation at the Latitude Festival, creating intimate wormholes from the noise and bustle of a festival into someone else’s innermost thoughts. Karl’s work is story-telling at its rawest – honest, open conversations that are beautiful, tragic, shocking and inspiring.

Paula LeDieu is the Director of Digital at the BFI, and has a long history dealing with archives and digital culture. During her time at the BBC she launched the Creative Archive project, before leaving to join the iCommons project set up by Larry Lessig. Outside of this work, she has create the Bus Tops Project with Alfie Dennen, one of the national Cultural Olympiad commissions, which will transfer the tops of bus shelters into messages boards for stories, thoughts and shout-outs. At The Story, I’m asking Paula to delve into the BFI’s archive and pull out the films that, for her, symbolise why archives are so important to our culture.

Graham Linehan really needs no introduction. As the creator of IT Crowd, and co-creator with Arthur Matthews of Father Ted and Big Train, Graham is responsible for some of the most successful comedy TV of the last 20 years. He also has over 65,000 people following him on Twitter, where his links to spotify playlists, political outrage and comedy videos give a great insight into what lies behind his work. I’m looking forward to hearing from an absolute master about where the raw material for great sitcoms come from, and how the web is changing the way he writes comedy.

So – that’s it for next week. Not many speakers to go now, and its a cracking line-up already. Don’t forget to get your ticket now!