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UnCon 2006

Dr_David_Sutton

Devoted Cultist
Joined
Oct 15, 2002
Messages
202
Just a quick one; you all know that UnCon 2006 returns to the old April date and is once again taking place at the Friends Meeting House, London.

We're putting the list of speakers together and it would be a great help to have your suggestions for:

new speakers
returning favourites
people you never, ever want to see again at an UnCon

post 'em here, or feel free to email me at [email protected]

All the best

David

=================
Info will be kept updated here as we know them:

Details were in FT206:54 and there is now a mini-site:

www.forteantimes.com/uncon2006/

Date:

29th-30th April 2006

Location:

Friends House, 173, Euston Rd. London

Confirmed speakers:

  • Gail-Nina Anderson • Fairies And Angels
    David Clarke • Flying Saucers from Hell
    Richard Freeman • Hunting the Death Worm
    Malcolm Gaskill • Witchfinders
    Ben Radford • The Ogopogo Lake Monster
    Andy Roberts • UFOs and the Hippy Movement
    Rat Scabies • Rennes-le-château & The Grail
    Ian Simmons • Intelligent Design vs Evolution
    Dr Mervyn Heard • The Secret History of Magic Lanterns
    Doug Skinner • Evolution and Pop Culture
    Jan Bondeson • Olaf Palme Conspiracy

Advance Ticket Prices:

1 day: £17.50
2 day: £25.00

Ordering:

Return the coupon in the mag and post/fax it back or phone 01789 490215. The accept credit and debit cards but not Visa Electron, Diners Club or Sirrus. Overseas orders should contact Dennis direct on the phone line given.

www.dennisdirect.co.uk
 
I would propose a talk given by A Knowing Person (not necessarily by me but...) on the expanding popularity of the FTMB in the remit of the Fortean Times.
Many issues of the FT use information first mooted by the FTMB, including news items, and actually repeat information posted.

While the UnConvention should rightly represent the wierd and wonderful in the world, it is being hosted - and inspired - by the Fortean Times and at least one of the lectures promoting the magazine would be only fair, especially if the substance of the lecture (the internet presence of the magazine) is relevent to the attendees.

Oh ... and yes.

I volunteer.
 
The CFZ and Gail Nina Anderson just have to be there :)

I'd also like to sugest Ronan Coghlan. Anyone who's seen one of his talks will tell you he is a fantastic speeker, very animated and very funny too as well as knowing his stuff inside out. I think one of his talks would be a fantastic way to kick off the uncon.

He can talk on a number or subjects, having writain books on folklore, ultra terrestrials and cryptozoology. His talk at the weird weekend was on mermaids and one of the undoubted highlights of 3 day convention.

(David Sutton, I've pm-ed you his email address if you need to contact him)
 
greets

suggest graham hancock - so we can put our thoughts on his books to him in person.

will there be book stalls? shame counter productions have gone out of business - is there a distributor who does a similar range of titles?

supplies of issues of Fortean Studies would be useful too!!!
 
Colin Wilson?

Less of boring, substance-free lectures like Marina Warner's last year.
 
H_James said:
Less of boring, substance-free lectures like Marina Warner's last year.
I disagree. Lectures like that are the only real chance you get to wander around the stalls and pick up any books.
 
A head to head debate from two people with opposing views on a specific phenomena like UFOs - also taking questions from the audience and giving their take on it.
 
Mal_Adjusted said:
greets

suggest graham hancock - so we can put our thoughts on his books to him in person.

will there be book stalls? shame counter productions have gone out of business - is there a distributor who does a similar range of titles?

supplies of issues of Fortean Studies would be useful too!!!

I did that at the 2003 uncon, suffice to say he didn't listen to a word.

I brought up the good point that theres no way for him or any one to know a whole load of things he was claiming as fact like hair colour etc and he ummed and ahed a bit then mumbled something about it that I've now forgoten but didn't answer the question. Next another person questioned weather phycology books are really the best place to research palaeontology or even palaeoanthropology (they're not, it's the equivelent of researching zoology useing a physics textbook).

He has his own ways of looking at things that he won't change no matter what is said, thats his own choice. :roll:
 
Mighty_Emperor said:
A head to head debate from two people with opposing views on a specific phenomena like UFOs - also taking questions from the audience and giving their take on it.

a UFO lecture at lunch time on both days would be a great idea.

nice convinient lunch break ;)
 
Whilst my thoughts are about him, what about Ken Campbell?
 
Yes Ronan is good though don't tell him I said that. ;)

I've only been to one Uncon so don't know if people have been on before but I'd also vote for Charles Paxton and Nick Redfern. I don't think anyone would get tired of Gail Nina Anderson. :)
 
Well, I think Gordon should be persuaded to do more mushrooms! :D

I thought his talk a couple of years ago was great.
 
I know that for some reason Ken Campbell seems to be popular amongst some forteans, and I'm sure he's a really top bloke when you meet him in person, but his act really doesn't appeal to me and having seen him more than once I find it a bit to samey.

It's a shame our kind quaker hoasts abbor alcohol as Ken's talk could be livened up with a drinking game. for example you could down one shot each time he mentions anne of green gables being popular in japan, 2 for any time he mentions any advert he's been in and finish the bottle every time he talks of any kind of small religious sect in the alps.

How about seeing if another comedian might be interested this year?

On another topic, for a main speeker how about Ciarán O'Keeffe to give a talk on paraphycology and how to spot fraudulant practices and charletons in the paranormal (given the recent information he was behind the deric faker anagram this might well prove to be a most interesting and illuminateing talk).
 
Or Yvette Fielding. Give her the chance to discuss and defend MH's methodology. I think it'd be only right to giver her a platform to discuss the show, considering it's runaway success despite it's dodgy reputation.
 
I'm with Oll on the Campbell question, but I'm far less polite. I found his performance at last year's Uncon tedious and self-indulgent, and I was not amused by his childish bad language.

(I left and browsed the book stalls, and met the bloke from Magonia whom I impressed by showing him the newspaper with the Charles Fort letter. So that didn't work out too badly. ;) )

Inviting Yvette Fielding is a good idea! And Ciarán O'Keeffe, for a little balance.

That Kreed Kafer chap might make an appearance too. :lol:
 
Since they're starring in the upcoming film about the Santilli Alien Autopsy Movie, how about Ant and Dec?

And if we don't contradict each other's stories they'll never find the bodies...


Seriously though, how about trying for John Ronson again?
 
I could do my talk on The Real Ultima Thule the lost Civilisation of the North.

For a fee, of course. ;)
 
I said:
Whilst my thoughts are about him, what about Ken Campbell?

OK folks I'm willing to withdraw this request if you guys withdraw yours for Yvette Fielding.

I mean Yvette Fielding.........:wtf:
 
Ok, how about Yvette, Ken and a biiig inflatable pool full of jelly?
 
Ok, how about Yvette, Ken and a biiig inflatable pool full of jelly?
;) Now your talking! Can we agree on a jelly flavour?
 
whoever you get can you make sure they don't do the sort of talk that Pau Devereux did at last years. At the best you could say he had a point, although one that everyone in the hall would probably have been aware of long before his lecture, at the worst it sounded like sour grapes on his part.

I know not every talks going to be to everyone's taste, but that was a complete waste of an hour :?
 
Actually, I think Yvette would be a very good choice of speaker. At least she's been there, done that, screamed and got the footage. ;)

She would have serious points to make, being a co-producer of MH and having a serious business interest in it. Plus, as Stormy pointed out, MH is certainly a Fortean programme.

The debate about what's real and what's fake lies at the heart of Forteanism and it is exemplified by MH, like it or not.

Ken just rambled on like an old bloke in a corner of the snug. I didn't travel a couple of hundred miles and stay overnight in the company of the current snoring event Olympic gold medal holder to hear that.
 
escargot1 said:
Ken just rambled on like an old bloke in a corner of the snug. I didn't travel a couple of hundred miles and stay overnight in the company of the current snoring event Olympic gold medal holder to hear that.

:shock:

If someone else got the gold they must only just have forced you into silver - at least according the rumours that were flying around.
 
It was a close-run event. Controversial result too, in that I managed to keep the entire hostel awake through talent alone and not with the aid of chemical aids (ie beer) unlike certain unscrupulous contenders. :?

Still, I'm a sport, and I know who really deserved to win. It's not all about public glory. :D
 
Following on from the excellent support I recieved for my last suggestion I'm going to go out on a limb here and throw another name into the mix. :D

I've never met him or heard a lecture by him but I'm sure we'd never meet a more affable and good natured gentleman than Dan Cruickshank, his programmes are discussed on these boards and references often made to them. Perhaps he could do a travelogue/slide show on 'twenty places a Fortean should visit.' - He may not tell us the pyramids of Egypt were built by men-from-mars but I'm sure a talk by him wouldn't be without interest to us Forteans.

So there, I've said it, Dan Cruickshank . . . . .

(Grabs hat and coat, turns the collar up and departs through the side door)
 
Dan Cruickshank would be excellent :D He did after all try to see the Ark of the Covenant on his Around the World in Eighty Treasures and he visited some pretty strange places.
 
greets

my vote goes for ol "squatter" cruikshank too.

(I like the way he works phrases such as taking direct action into a program about egypt.)

and robin ramsay - its sooo long since i last met him!

possibly someone who's been researching flying triangle UFOs?
 
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