Keynotes and Journeys

Every year, when we start organ­ising North­ern Voice, the ques­tion comes up about key­notes. Key­notes set the tone of a con­fer­ence, they indic­ate some­thing of what the organ­ising com­mit­tee is think­ing, or what they think the com­munity that sup­ports the con­fer­ence might want to hear about. This year, I wanted to find someone as a key­note speak­er who could talk to us about the less sunny side of life, and remind us that some of the per­son­al stor­ies people share online aren’t about good things hap­pen­ing, they’re about life hap­pen­ing, and life isn’t always fair, or easy. The rest of the organ­ising com­mit­tee agreed, and we’re glad that April Smith agreed to present. “Storytelling From the Heart of the City” opens North­ern Voice on Fri­day May 13th. 

The Sat­urday key­note is a dif­fer­ent slant on the web, from Chris Wilson, who’s played a key role in build­ing many of the web tech­no­lo­gies we use every day. I’m not actu­ally sure what he’s going to talk about, but I have no doubt it will be an inter­est­ing view of the web world so many of us now inhab­it, sprinkled with inter­est­ing anec­dotes. I’m look­ing for­ward to it!

Two key­notes, two dif­fer­ent slants on what the web enables, two dif­fer­ent jour­neys. I’m not very good at chron­ic­ling my own jour­ney, but I admire those who do, and I hope (and expect) that the North­ern Voice key­notes will give strength and inspir­a­tion to all of us.