Although I haven’t allocated much time over the last few months to organising Humanity+ activities, I still assist the organisation on an occasional basis.
Earlier today, I issued a “call for speakers” for the January 2011 Humanity+ UK conference that will be taking place on Saturday 29 January 2011, in London’s Conway Hall.
Here’s a summary of the call:
Submissions are requested for talks lasting no more than 20 minutes on the general theme of Making a human difference. Submissions should address one or more of the follow sub-themes:
- Technology that enhances humans
- Existential risks: the biggest human difference
- Citizen activism in support of Humanity+
- Humanity vs. Humanity+: criticisms and renewal
- Roadmapping the new human future.
Submissions need not be lengthy – around the equivalent of one page of A4 material should be sufficient. They should cover:
- Proposed title of the talk, and which of the above sub-themes apply to it
- Brief description of the talk
- Brief description of the speaker
- An explanation of why the presentation will provide value to the expected audience.
The 20 minute limit on the length of presentations is intended to ensure that speakers focus on communicating their most important messages. It will also allow a larger number of speakers (and, hence, a larger number of points of view to be considered during the day).
A small number of speakers will also be invited to take part in panel Q&A discussions. These will be decided nearer the time of the conference.
Speaker submissions should be emailed as soon as possible to humanityplusuk AT gmail DOT com.
Speaker slots will be allocated as soon as good submissions are received, and announced on the conference blog. The call for submissions will be closed once there are no available speaking slots left.
Note: at this conference, all speakers will be required to provide slides (e.g. PowerPoint) to accompany their presentation. Speakers who fail to provide their slides to the organisers at least 48 hours before the start of the conference will be removed from the programme.
The organisers also regret that no speaker expenses, fees, or honoraria can be paid. However, speakers will receive free registration for the conference.
Footnote: For background, here’s the site for the corresponding 2010 conference, which attracted an audience of just under 200 people.
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