SUDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG (Germany)
Think of the most boring thing in the world: Tupperware? Celery? Jazz music? People talking about jazz music? That cool friend from college who can’t stop telling you how motherhood has changed everything…
Now imagine a roomful of people giving enthusiastic talks about all these things, and you have the third annual “Boring Conference,” which took place last week in London“s, Bethnal Green.
James Ward, a marketing manager (zzzzz), hatched the idea in 2010 to encourage people to “take the time to examine what we think of as boring just because it’s part of the every day.”
[rebelmouse-image 27086078 alt=”” original_size=”499×333″ expand=1]Big snooze
Writing on the conference’s webpage, Ward speaks of his other endeavors into the mundane: The Stationery Club, where members bring stationery and talk about stationery; as well as Crispival “08 – a whole festival dedicated to potato chips (to be fair, that sounds kind of fun).
At the 2012 Boring summit, attendees explored the cutting edge of breakfast options in American chain restaurants and serial numbers of subway cars, taking a break to gorge themselves on the “most boring buffet in the world,” which included bits of cucumber on toothpicks, parsley on flabby white bread, sugarless cookies, tap water.
Technical journalist Leila Johnston spoke of her fascination with IBM automatic cash registers. She photographs every model she comes across, and enters their locations on Google Maps. “The first white cash register I ever saw was the rare IBM ‘surePOS 300.” It was my Moby Dick. It was in a drugstore in Sheffield. I shall never forget that day.”
