Simon Minty's recent thoughts and more

This time last week I climbed aboard a coach to travel to conference called Names Not Numbers  held at Oxford University. Now in its 10th year, it is a remarkable conference with a remarkable group of people. It is both professional and personal, about networking and connections.  The conference theme was 'Judgement' and each speaker or session incorporated the concept in some way. As the conference began, I soon found myself instinctively jotting down notes - pithy sentences, profound points, startling facts and emotive thoughts from the various speakers. My intention was to able to reflect on them at a later date.  However, I've changed my mind and I have set out some of them here. That’s a risk as it might be a case of 'you had to be there'... how can they have the same impact in a blog when compared to hearing them from the person’s own voice, in the context of the rest of their talk? Worryingly, such excellent speakers might be a tad unimpressed that I'v...

I was invited to speak at the fantastic Names Not Numbers conference earlier this week. There were some big hitters in attendance from journalism and cultural commentary. I was part of the 'Provocations' section which was a treat as it gave me plenty of space to raise difficult subjects. I asked 'Is it ok to laugh at a disabled person?' and talked about how disability and comedy has evolved since we started Abnormally Funny People. And I got to say it all in church, St James's, Piccadilly. I was preaching to the unconverted. Simon Minty speaking at St James's, Piccadilly Side view of Simon speaking at St James's, Piccadilly