What’s the Story?

The art of storytelling is hugely undervalued and under appreciated in business, especially in technology and innovation circles. We may all deal in facts and figures yet all that most people really want and remember are great stories.

With this in mind, we had a great day last Friday attending The Story 2015 conference in London (having enjoyed it very much last year too) which feature 12 x 20 minute talks in front of a gathering of several hundred of the UK’s digital, creative and media hipsterati at the beautiful Conway Hall.

I won’t attempt any kind of comprehensive review of the day as it’s nearly impossible to do here but all the talks were interesting for different reasons and all of the speakers provocative, talking eloquently of successes and failures in many different fields. It was often funny and moving and “made your belly laugh whilst breaking your heart”.

I particularly enjoyed hearing about the Misfit Economy from Alexa Clay who thinks we have a lot to learn from the 60% of the world’s economy (over $10trillion) which is strictly not legal.

Nelly Ben Hayoun, high energy and great fun, seems to have somehow persuaded NASA and SETI to set up the International Space Orchestra, in part as a way to engage and communicate their scientific research with the wider world.

Last to speak was James Bridle (who I also enjoyed at the Do Lectures back in 2012 talking about the future of the book) who inspired, entertained and slightly induced paranoia with his talk on his search for the origins of the Internet at Los Alamos, via Architectural clip art, to the power of the immense tools at our fingertips which we are only just beginning to understand.

Anyway, it was a great day, and I think there is a lot we can learn from these talks and other great storytellers about how to weave together the strands of a compelling and engaging narrative. I can whole heartedly recommend attending next year if you haven’t been before. Congrats to Matt Locke and the whole team for making it happen.

by Roland