(EDIT:  OH NEVER MIND.  IT’S SOLD OUT.)

i’m seriously considering going to london to attend the below event…  it’s on a friday, so i’d probably come in either thursday night or friday morning, and try to stay for the weekend.  if lucky, go out dancing too.  basically, i was looking for a good excuse, and this came up.  🙂  i haven’t checked flight/train prices yet… will do that soon.

i’m wondering if anyone has a place to crash?  i will also ask some friends who aren’t on lj, but figured i’d start here while i’m thinking about it..

Event – Doctorow and Stross: Resisting the all-seeing eye

With the rise of the database state and firms profiting from user-profiling, it’s vital to resist surveillance and ensure the integrity of your digital personality. From technologies like PGP and Tor to the arguments that will convince people – friends and family as well as media and politicians – to watch out for their digital rights, this event is your anti-surveillance 101.

Cory Doctorow – science fiction novelist, blogger and technology activist – and Charlie Stross – science fiction writer and former programmer and pharmacist – will share how and why to control your data. The event will be moderated by Ian Brown – academic, activist and Blogzilla.

The entry price is either joining Open Rights Group – by handing door staff a completed form (link to PDF) – or making a one-off £10 donation on the door. Please register for tickets here. Drinks will be available, as is The Three Kings – a local pub – to continue the debate.

What: Doctorow and Stross: Resisting the all-seeing eye
When: 1830, Friday 1 May 2009
Where: Crypt on the Green, St James Church, Clerkenwell, Clerkenwell Close, London, EC1R 0EA – Map
How: Get your tickets here!

and no, before you ask, i DON’T actually know what MIP stands for.  i’ll look it up one of these days.

i am in cannes.  it’s a business trip… my very first in this job.  it was supposed to be sunny, yet as i type the rain is POURING heavily on the skylight in our tiny studio apartment (i am shacked up with a colleague for the week).

before i get around to going into any detail about cannes or the things i’m doing here, i need to share this very amusing thing that one of the speakers showed us yesterday at a seminar.  … extreme sheep!  apparently they’ve only been up a couple of weeks….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2FX9rviEhw

i really really hope this link works.

now then, what to say?  cannes is… weird.  i guess i’m not even seeing its full oddity, given that it has poured rain nearly the entire time i’ve been here.  this keeps the number of non-tv biz people down.  after all, we HAVE to be here.  but it’s very 80s, and i don’t mean that in this new, retro 80’s way that has most people dressing like the alternative styles of the 80’s… i mean it in the too much bling and too slick fashion way.

now that i’ve said that, i can’t honestly say i’ve seen so much other than in the stores, and the occasional obvious hooker.  i always wonder with prostitutes that seem that obvious in a rather expensive way, if they think they DON’T look like prostitutes.  (sorry about all the caps things… i’m too lazy to deal with proper formatting and italics while i type.)

the market is, i’ve been told, pretty quiet this year.  as one well-known participant said to me while we stood outside the palais, it means that those who are here are in most cases the core people, with real business to attend to, and they are more focused and not wasting anyone’s time.  that’s great for them.  for me, i’ve been attending seminars & keynotes, taking notes and recording, for later feedback to my colleagues and boss.  a journalist in one of the seminars asked me if i was also a journalist, trying to read my badge from his seat beside me.  i have to say, i’ve been feeling more like a journalist than like a student, which was the first self-perception i had.

i don’t enjoy wandering the booths.  i don’t enjoy the networking parties.  i find the seminars, for the most part, very interesting and quite useful to my job and to our business’ general intelligence.  i also do enjoy the food very much.  strangely, i haven’t been enjoying the coffee.  weird!  usually i love coffee in france, but it’s been pretty disappointing so far.  today i came back to the apartment, stopped at monoprix, and bought a package of english breakfast tea, a jar of honey, and a small container of milk.  having finished a nice strong cup of tea, i’m feeling a little picked up.

tonight i’ll be having dinner with my colleague again.  we had a great time last night, getting tipsy at 3 of those horrible parties (the last one wasn’t so bad – champagne helps) before heading to a late dinner at an armenian restaurant.  delicious!  nice conversation and then we were too tired to go to any of the big party hangout places.  tonight she wants to have a slightly earlier dinner then go out and party a little.  i’m looking forward to it.

ciao for now!