With the Information Design Conference happening next week, and dominating my life for the last several months, I've been regaling friends with hilarious tales of conference disasters of yesteryear. Like the one at Cranfield where they served coffee in the foyer of a building where students were sitting final exams. Invigilators burst out shushing us as we chatted. Then there was the time they scheduled major roof repairs for the day of the conference. And the symposium I organised in a Cotswold hotel, inspected in the summer, but found to have no central heating when we met in November. It was market day, and luminaries such Pat Wright, Michael Twyman and David Olson sat around the table in army surplus jumpers.
So just before leaving for the long weekend, Greenwich University broke the news today that Working Title will be filming Les Misérables, with Russell Crowe and other famous people, just outside the window of the conference next week. Crowd scenes, horses, dodgy accents, occasional gunfire and music to accompany the dance sequences.
At least we won't be bored.
