James Ward (born 2 April 1981) [1] is an English writer and the founder of Boring Conference. [2]
James Ward (born 2 April 1981) [1] is an English writer and the founder of Boring Conference. [2]
James Ward first came to prominence in 2009 with a blog that charted his fascination with "small unimportant things". [3] The London Twirls Project, his attempt to map the availability, pricing and storage conditions of Cadbury's Twirls in Central London, [4] led to him giving talks at public events such as Ignite [5] [6] and The Lost Lectures. [7]
In 2010, he won a competition run by Virgin Atlantic and was flown to America to write a pen-based comparison of London and New York. [8]
Ward's first book, Adventures in Stationery: A Journey Through Your Pencilcase, was published in the UK by Profile Books in 2014. [9] Described as "high class pornography for the stationery enthusiast", [10] it received generally positive reviews in the British press. [11] It has been translated into Korean, Japanese and Chinese.
Adventures in Stationery was rewritten for the North American market and released in 2015 with the alternative title The Perfection of the Paperclip: Curious Tales of Invention, Accidental Genius and Stationery Obsession. This was due to words such as "stationery" and "pencil case" not commonly being part of the American English vocabulary. It was published by Simon and Schuster. [12]
Ward has written for The Guardian , [13] The Wall Street Journal , [14] The Daily Telegraph , [15] and New Humanist , [16] amongst others.
Inspired by the cancellation of Interesting Conference, [17] Ward founded Boring Conference in 2010. [2] The conference describes itself as "A one-day celebration of the mundane, the ordinary, the obvious and the overlooked". [18] Speakers at the conference give short talks on a wide variety of "boring" topics, which have previously included sneezing, toast, IBM tills, the Shipping Forecast, and barcodes. [18]
Past speakers include Jon Ronson, Josie Long, Rhodri Marsden, Adam Curtis and Greg Stekelman. An unexpected success, the event regularly sells out minutes after tickets go on sale. [19] The most recent Boring Conference – Boring VIII – took place at Conway Hall on 5 May 2018. [20]
In 2017, Ward made The Boring Talks Podcast in collaboration with the BBC. [21] Available as a weekly download from January 2018, each podcast consists of a talk on a single subject that would generally be considered 'boring', such as 'yellow lines' and 'book pricing algorithms'.
Ward regularly gives talks on Boring Conference, the minutiae of everyday life, the nature of boredom and the joys of stationery. He has spoken at IBTM World in Barcelona, [22] Secret Garden Party, [23] Kings Place in London, [24] the Hay Literary Festival [25] and Nerd Nite. [26] He appears in airline JetBlue's in-flight video "HumanKinda" [27] and as a guest on podcasts Little Atoms [28] and The Allusionist . [29]
In 2010, Ward co-founded Stationery Club, a regular gathering where people would meet in a pub to discuss which pen they were using at the moment. [30] [31]
In 2015, Ward co-founded and hosted The Concept Album Talks with Hamish Thompson. [32] Each event centres around a different concept album. Speakers give a talk inspired by the title of one track of that album that must last for the same duration as the song. [33] Albums covered so far are TheDark Side of the Moon and Pet Sounds .
Blu Tack is a reusable putty-like pressure-sensitive adhesive produced by Bostik, commonly used to attach lightweight objects to walls, doors or other dry surfaces. Traditionally blue, it is also available in other colours. Generic versions of the product are also available from other manufacturers. The spelling now used is without a hyphen.
Nicola Barker is an English novelist and short story writer.
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Derwent is a brand of pencils, art materials, and other stationery. The business began in 1832 in Cumberland under the name of "Banks, Son & Co". The company was bought by US corporation ACCO Brands in 1980, and became a brand of their product range.
A lightning talk is a very short presentation lasting only a few minutes, given at a conference or similar forum. Several lightning talks will usually be delivered by different speakers in a single session, sometimes called a data blitz.
Christopher Brendan Ward IV, better known by the stage name MC Chris, is an American rapper, voice actor, comedian, and writer. He is known for his high-pitched voice and for combining his "geek" background with the "gangsta rap" image which resulted in the genre of nerdcore. He has released ten albums, five EPs, one re-release and a tenth anniversary edition of his recordings with the Lee Majors.
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IKEA pencils are small pencils provided for free in IKEA stores worldwide. They are found in small boxes attached to poles, together with maps, measuring tapes and shopping forms. The IKEA pencil has been known for the wide variety of designs. Through the years the color changed from blue, to yellow to the natural color of wood. Despite the different colors, its dimensions have always been 7×87mm. Their common in-store application is for notetaking, with customers making note of selected items from product tags onto their notepads and visiting the self-service furniture warehouse to collect their showroom products in flat pack form, using their notes to locate their products.
Julia Galef is an American writer, speaker and co-founder of the Center for Applied Rationality. She hosts Rationally Speaking, the official podcast of New York City Skeptics, which she has done since its inception in 2010, sharing the show with co-host and philosopher Massimo Pigliucci and produced by Benny Pollak until 2015.
Adventures in Stationery: A Journey Through Your Pencil Case is a non-fiction book by James Ward about stationery. It was published by British publisher Profile Books in 2014.
QED: Question, Explore, Discover is an annual skeptical conference held in Manchester, England. QED is organised by North West Skeptical Events Ltd (NWSE), a volunteer-owned non-profit organisation originating from a collaboration between the Merseyside Skeptics Society and the Greater Manchester Skeptics Society.
Matthew Thomas Parker is an Australian recreational mathematician, author, comedian, YouTube personality and science communicator based in the United Kingdom. His book Humble Pi was the first maths book in the UK to be a Sunday Times No. 1 bestseller. Parker was the Public Engagement in Mathematics Fellow at Queen Mary University of London. He is a former maths teacher and has helped popularise maths via his tours and videos.
Yrsa Daley-Ward is an English writer, model and actor. She is known for her debut book, Bone, as well as for her spoken-word poetry, and for being an "Instagram poet". Her memoir, The Terrible, was published in 2018, and in 2019 it won the PEN/Ackerley Prize. She co-wrote Black Is King, Beyoncé's musical film and visual album, which also serves as a visual companion to the 2019 album The Lion King: The Gift.
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Claire Armitstead FRSL is a British journalist and author. She is Associate Editor (Culture) at The Guardian, where she has worked since 1992. She is also a cultural commentator on literature and the arts, and makes appearances on radio and television, as well as leading workshops and chairing literary events in the UK and at international festivals. She has judged literary competitions including the Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books, the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature, the PEN Pinter Prize and the Scotiabank Giller Prize.
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