Everything you need to know for The Story 2015

It’s nearly time for The Story 2015, so here’s the usual FAQ for everyone coming to The Story. This should answer most of the questions you might have, but if there’s something else you need to know, email us or ask me on Twitter @thestory2015 and we’ll get back to you asap.

BTW – We send a newsletter every week from Storythings with interesting stories from around the web, and advance ticket sales for The Story and our other events. If you want to make sure you get first chance to buy tickets, and also get 10 lovely stories in your inbox every week, you can sign up here.

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. Please let me know if you have particular needs, and I’ll make sure we sort them out for you. 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 hashtag for the event?
If you’re tweeting, blogging or uploading photos of the day, please use #story2015 as a hashtag. The wifi in The Conway Hall isn’t always great 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 booked a ticket for a group/someone else, but the PDF only has my name on it
This is a bit of a limitation of using Eventbrite – it doesn’t seem to handle group bookings/alternate names very well. There are two ways round this – just give the person/group you bought the tickets for a copy of the PDF each, and we’ll cross them off when they turn up, making sure the right number of people come for your group (so if you print more PDFs than tickets, you won’t get extra places!). Or, if you can email me the list of people in the group, we’ll make a note of their names and tick them off as they turn up. Either way is fine by us.

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 send a tweet to @thestory2015, and I’ll retweet it around to see if anyone else wants to buy the ticket from you. If you’re not on Twitter, email me and I’ll tweet it myself.

Fancy a pint afterwards?
YES! The event finishes at 4.00, and its a Friday, so we think that’s beer o’clock. Every year most of us retire 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 – we’re taking an audio feed out from the sound desk, and we’re starting to release old talks as part of our new Storythings Podcast. A few of the talks from previous years are up on the Storythings website. Not all the talks really work as podcasts – particularly ones from artists that involve lots of copyrighted material – but I’ll put up the ones that I think work well.

Will there be anything to buy/read/do at The Story this year?
Yes! so bring some spare cash. As they do every year, the Hoxton St Monster Supply shop (aka the Ministry of Stories) will set up a temporary store in the foyer, as I want to raise as much money as possible for them. There will also be copies of our first Storythings Publication –Vacuum Days by Tim Etchells – on sale at a special discount price of £15, so bring some money and get a copy of this gorgeous, limited edition book!

Will it be cold?
This is about the time that I start looking at the medium-range weather forecasts with a nervous look on my face. Running an event in February means there’s always the chance of a cold snap. Its looking like it will be a cloudy, but cold day, and The Conway Hall takes a while to warm up, so make sure you wrap up well.

I think that’s it. If there’s anything else you need to know, please let me know via email or on Twitter. See you on Friday!