Speakers Announced!
We’ve been busy planning and conceiving here at The Lost Headquarters and we’re pleased to announce that all of our speakers are now confirmed for our January dates. They are a wide and eclectic bunch: leaders in their field, innovators, thinkers and true originals… here’s the list as it stands… we will update as we find out more.
January 18th 2012
Gavin Pretor-Pinney: author of the best selling Cloudspotter’s Guide and co-creator of The Idler (and its book of crap towns). He’s responsible for – amongst other things – bringing absinthe back to the UK after an 8-year ban (bottoms up!). He also recently won The Royal Society Best Science Book award for his new book “The Wavewatcher’s Companion”. We’re really looking forward to having him on our stage!
Gordon Young is one of the UK’s leading artists in the field of public art. With over 20 years’ experience, he has created some incredible pieces: from forests of typographic trees to Walls of Wishes. His latest and most ambitious project is the Comedy Carpet, a 1,880m2 granite typographical pavement made up of the jokes, songs and catchphrases of famous comedians and writers.
Prof Elaine Fox is a world-leading experimental psychologist and expert in the science of optimism (now we all need a bit of that, don’t we!). As well as a huge list of academic papers to her name, she has a pop-science book “Rainy Brain, Sunny Brain” due out in March 2012.
David Barrie is a social entrepreneur and the creative brains behind The People’s Supermarket (a social supermarket run by the people for the people, winner of The Observer Ethical Award 2010). Barrie is involved with many social, economic and creative ventures across the globe and is an expert in urbanism and sustainability. We’re lucky to have him!
Thomas Thwaites: a designer who set about making a toaster… from scratch. His journey took him across the planet, mining for metal, deriving plastic from oil and a host of other mind-boggling endeavours… his book, recently published, is full of incredible insights about production, design, collaboration and civilisation… his story is even better told in person.
Piff the Magic Dragon: he’s a dragon, need we say more? OK, he’s a magic dragon, with a pet chihuahua.
January 19th 2012
Dr Chris Lintott is an Astronomer, zookeeper and writer. Chris is Head Zookeeper at The Galaxy Zoo Project (a crowd-sourcing global project that finds new Galaxies). He’s co-author of Bang (along with Dr Brian May… yes, the one from Queen!), Times columnist and Sky at Night presenter. You could even say a younger Sir Patrick Moore (minus the monocle).
Régine Debatty has a popular blog We-Make-Money-Not-Art: she writes and speaks around the world about how artists, hackers and interaction designers use and misuse technology… her talks cover how the artistic world interacts with everything from science to politics… she’s an explosive thinker and exciting writer and speaker.
Camille Johnson: businesswoman and founder of Pink Ribbon Lingerie: a one-stop shop for lingerie, swimwear and clothing for women after breast cancer surgery. Her business / social enterprise, aimed at raising awareness and funds for breast cancer, has won numerous business awards (Smarta 100) as well as receiving much press attention since its conception in 2009.
James Ward: Ever wondered the best way to catalogue a tie collection or pondered the taste discrepancies of milks from different supermarkets. To some, the answer to these and other slightly absurd questions might seem inconsequential. But for James Ward, they are of sufficient interest to merit organising Britain’s first conference dedicated entirely to boring stuff. James comes to The Lost Lectures to share boring gems galore from this years Boring Conference.
Matt Brown: Matt is the editor of Londonist and quite possibly the most London-obsessed person in the world, reaching parts of the capital others can’t reach. In the cause of exploring London, he’s waded along the buried River Fleet, spent the night in a haunted plague pit, caught a lung infection in Soho’s tallest steeple and walked the tube tracks at 2 a.m… he’s here to share London’s most hidden secrets.
Tom Williams and Matt Lacey: Matt wrote and performed a sketch called “Gap Yah” which a few (million) people watched on You Tube; he’s had multiple TV appearances and released a book off the back of the sketch: “Gap Yah Planet”. Tom is another YouTube sensation (or attention-seeker), having written “Newport State of Mind”, voted No 1 viral of the year by The Guardian 2010. Together they form part of “The Unexpected Items”. They performed together in “Mythbusting” at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival to great reviews. They both enjoy comedy and have been described as “frequently hilarious”.
Last and maybe least, Master of Ceremonies on the day will be Julian K-S: ad-man, ideas junkie and The Lost Founder. His love of bringing things to life has led him to creating the Lost Lectures… he brings with him an eagerness to please and a mild fear of public speaking. His hope is that everything runs smoothly and that awkward moments are kept to a minimum… he’ll keep it brief and let his speakers do the talking.
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