Sidewalk Life

"I thought it was cooler to be interesting than to be pretty"

Good for you Winona.  We agree.   Interestingness is much cooler.
Read the rest of the quote on Jezebel.

Interesting Wordle

Rick created a really nice wordle out of the topics for Saturday's event.

And another one for the speakers. 

Three days to Interesting New York

The lineup is finalized. Download speaker_schedule_final.pdf 

We have 28 really interesting speakers and topics.

The conference is getting lots of press. Thrillist  PSFK Rob Walker  Creativity and PSFK again.

Tickets are selling fast, but you can still buy them online for $35 here.   $40 (cash only) at the door.

Volunteers meeting at 9:00am Saturday at the venue. 

We still need some people for the day of the event.  We have a small core group of people, but we could use a few more to spread out the workload and allow everybody to enjoy the conference.  If you'd like to volunteer email me and I'll put you on the list for Saturday.  Remember, volunteers get in FREE. And you'll probably only have to do a couple hours of 'work.' 

Really looking forward to it.  See you Saturday.

Interesting Tickets On Sale Now

Tickets are available online through Eventbrite.

Interesting on Facebook

We now have a Facebook page.  Please feel free to use it to invite your friends to Interesting New York.

Want to Speak at Interestng New York?

Submit a topic on the speaker submission page at Interesting New York.

We're looking for people who are fascinated by something; their passions, curiosities, obsessions.  In other words, what they’re interested in.

You don't have to be a good public speaker.  In fact, it might be better if you're not.  Just be passionate. 
We give you the stage and a microphone, you give us 3 to 20 minutes of interestingness.  No more, no less.  Other people want to speak too you know. 

Interesting New York

The date is set for

Saturday Sept 13 from 10:00-6:00

Katie Murphy Amphitheater at F.I.T. in Manhattan

More details to come

Interesting Planning

A bunch of us got together yesterday morning to start planning Interesting New York.

We discussed the spirit of Interesting:

• Interesting is a goal, not a claim
• It is an opportunity for people to share their passions and what they care about
• People talk because they're fascinated by something, not because they're good a public speaking
• Content is open source and sharable
• No agendas.  No marketing.
• Sponsors give tangible things that make the day better
• Collaborative organizing
• Affordable for the average Joe/Jane
• Not for profit.  Any extra money goes to charity

We talked about dates.  And whether we should do it this summer or in the fall.   August in New York is vacant, so that probably won't work.  July seems ambitious, but possible.  And September seems reasonable, but far off. 

The day of week the conference should be held started an interesting debate.  Saturday or weekday?  Interesting London and Amsterdam are on Saturday, and Sydney is on a weeknight.  Saturday sends a strong signal that the day is about leisure and not work.  And allows people to come who can't get the day off work.  A weekday evening says the same thing, but I can't stay awake past 9pm and hopefully we'll too many speakers to get through in only a few hours.

www.interestingnewyork.com will be where people can find everything they want to know about the day - once we build it.

The next steps are:

• choosing a date

• choosing a venue.  We're estimating for 300 people.  Maybe that's optimistic, I don't know.  Early ideas are 92nd ST. Y, NYU Tish, Art Directors Club.

• building a website -  for publicity, keeping people updated, and as a place where potential speakers can submit their topics. 

• selecting a charity