George
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Post by George on Sept 27, 2011 11:58:30 GMT 10
I've been in recent communication with Jacopo Castelletti (aka Alexander Reinhardt of St Charlie) concerning an academic conference on micronations which he's presently trying to organise for the northern summer of 2012 in London. If it goes ahead it's likely to be conceptually similar to PoliNation 2010 - but obviously, being in Europe, the opportunities for attracting a larger contingent of micronation representatives as well as members of the general public are somewhat greater. At this stage a 1-2 day event occuring during the first two weeks of July is looking feasible. Dr Judy Lattas from Macquarie University in Sydney has already expressed an interest in being involved. I am also likely to attend. Further updates as news comes to hand.
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Post by sogoln on Sept 27, 2011 18:03:12 GMT 10
I'm interested too. As soon as I get firm dates, I'll put this in my agenda.
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Peter
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Post by Peter on Sept 28, 2011 6:33:43 GMT 10
Extremely interested, likely to appear. Please make sure that the project does not collide with the olympic-games madness, thankyouverymuch
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George
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Post by George on Sept 28, 2011 8:51:22 GMT 10
The London Olympics are happening from 27 July to 12 August, so there won't be a clash.
On the positive side, the world's media attention will already be firmly fixed on the UK by early July, so we should be able to trade off that very nicely.
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Post by Matthew Burklandssen on Sept 28, 2011 9:05:55 GMT 10
But I don't live in the UK D:
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George
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Post by George on Sept 28, 2011 10:13:04 GMT 10
This is why god gave us airlines.
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Chas Jago
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Post by Chas Jago on Sept 28, 2011 10:40:16 GMT 10
Yea and if you have a spare $3000 then its possible
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George
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Post by George on Sept 28, 2011 11:39:21 GMT 10
You can get a Sydney-London return flight these days for just over AUD $1400.
...and you still have nearly a year to become best friends with someone who lives in London and owns a spare sofa :-)
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Post by papapodjov on Oct 14, 2011 1:58:12 GMT 10
Hotel costs could be through the roof during this time. We could start our own camp out protest outside the houses of parliament in tents.... or we could take the cider-tramping option. Just don't camp out on hampstead heath... and run if George Michael appears
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George
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Post by George on Oct 14, 2011 10:46:19 GMT 10
London accommodation costs were already preposterousdly high when I was last there in the early 1990s, so I may well just decide to stay with friends in Maidstone and take the train up.
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George
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Post by George on Oct 19, 2011 9:31:01 GMT 10
It seems the London conference has the potential to turn out to be quite an event.
I've already had success in identifying nearly a dozen academics, graduate students and film-makers who are interested in actively participating.
I hope to be in a position to release a rough outline agenda via a dedicated website within the next couple of months.
Further news as it comes to hand.
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Peter
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Post by Peter on Oct 19, 2011 10:45:27 GMT 10
Yay! *impatiently waiting for the call for papers*
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George
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Post by George on Oct 19, 2011 12:13:07 GMT 10
Hi Peter. The call for papers is now <OPEN>. Please email me privately concerning this: georgivs@nospam.com.auI'd like to be in a position to list all conference participants and their papers on the website as soon as it's launched - so the sooner I have a commitment from all interested parties the better.
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George
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Post by George on Nov 4, 2011 9:03:42 GMT 10
I am pleased to announce that the director of the "Empire Me" micronation documentary - Paul Poet - will be attending the London conference to host a screening of his film.
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Post by sogoln on Nov 5, 2011 4:25:29 GMT 10
Are there any directives regarding the kind of paper that can be presented?
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George
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Post by George on Nov 6, 2011 16:54:45 GMT 10
Not really - but the overaching conference theme is "micronations: the nexus of politics and art" (which also happens to be the title of my plenary address).
Having said that, any paper with the theme "My Micronation: Why it's Rooly Kewl and Totally Awesome" is probably not going to cut it - although there will be an opportunity for people to deliver promotional presentations on individual micronations outside the main academic stream.
If anyone is planning on submitting/delivering a paper I'll need to know the title or general concept of the paper and the name of the presenter. I'll also need to be supplied with a 1-paragraph biography which summarises their real-world background / achievements etc + a suitable facepic to publish on the conference website, which is now in planning.
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George
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Post by George on Nov 6, 2011 21:15:03 GMT 10
I am pleased to confirm that Dr Judy Lattas has approved the use of the PoliNation name for the London conference.
Hence, we will be calling it...
PoliNation: the 2nd International Conference on Micronations
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Peter
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Post by Peter on Nov 7, 2011 2:38:57 GMT 10
Neat. I could definitely send an abstract soon(ish) but I'll need more time to compile an actual paper.
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George
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Post by George on Nov 7, 2011 5:38:40 GMT 10
That's fine Peter. We won't need to see actual papers until after xmas at least.
At this stage we're trying to get a handle on how many people we need to try to shoehorn into the programme, as well as a general idea of subject matter.
We need to work on about 30 minutes per paper + around 10 mins for Q&A afterwards.
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George
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Post by George on Nov 8, 2011 22:11:11 GMT 10
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George
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Post by George on Nov 8, 2011 22:23:40 GMT 10
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Peter
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Post by Peter on Nov 8, 2011 23:07:15 GMT 10
Convenient location. Impressive building. Looks terrific. I can't wait!
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Post by sogoln on Nov 9, 2011 5:09:41 GMT 10
But I don't want to get married!!!
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Peter
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Post by Peter on Nov 9, 2011 5:53:05 GMT 10
Don't worry. What happens in Chelsea, stays in Chelsea.
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George
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Post by George on Nov 9, 2011 7:31:54 GMT 10
...unless you happen to come into the field-of-view of my video camera :-)
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George
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Post by George on Nov 9, 2011 7:42:49 GMT 10
At this stage I would like to raise the delicate issue of money :-)
Hiring the venue is costing GBP 885.00 per day.
I'm happy to pay the necessary 25% deposit, and will personally bankroll 1 day - but I'm hoping that others will contribute towards the cost of day 2.
I think there's a good chance that one of the likely exhibitors will offer to pay a couple of hundred pounds towards that, which leaves a shortfall of about GBP 650.
If anyone is willing to contribute a spare 50, 100 or 600 towards that I'd like to hear from you.
The balance of the hiring charge does not need to be paid until a week before the event, so there's no rush; you have plenty of time to save your pennies before giving them to me :-)
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Peter
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Post by Peter on Nov 9, 2011 8:16:15 GMT 10
Can I pay with Jirmanian money?
Jokes aside: Wouldn't it be practical to add (a part of) this to regular conference fees?
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George
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Post by George on Nov 9, 2011 11:45:56 GMT 10
I'd rather not to have to charge people to attend, in order to maximise the number and variety of delegates; even $20 can be problemmatic for students and younger people.
I'd like to be fairly confident far enough in advance that there's going to be enough in the kitty via private donations and commercial sponsorships, so that I don't find myself having to skimp on the quality of my accommodations in order to fund the shortfall :-)
Another option is to charge admission solely to the documentary film screening components of the event.
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Post by sogoln on Nov 10, 2011 17:57:44 GMT 10
Hey, I just realized this venue is just a short walk away from Pimlico.
I'd like to present a paper on the alternate way of nation-building (culture before politics) after discussing the issue with the community in the coming weeks.
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George
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Post by George on Nov 10, 2011 19:25:25 GMT 10
Certainment, monsieur.
Re Pimlico: is it? I had not checked. I stayed in Pimlico the first and only time I visited London. I recall it being bland, but cheap compared to the rest of London, and Victoria Station was close by.
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