"Spielberg, Scorsese, Nolan"

Politics Adrian reviews the Social Liberal Forum conference last Saturday:

"Imagine you’re at a convention organised by film fans and they’ve managed to attract some really big names; Spielberg, Scorsese, Nolan. So Spielberg gets up and gives the same talk that he’s given to a dozen other conventions; and then after him, you have a guy who’s read a few books about film saying how it’d be nice if films were more realistic. And then the Q&A is full of people announcing their love of Lord of the Rings, or saying that making films more realistic would kill Pixar. That’s what this conference felt like."

His description sounds like every "official" conference I've been to. The delegates are usually more interested in using it as a networking opportunity than caring too much about the speeches which often they've already heard elsewhere or the content of which they've already seen in trade journals.   It's about being there or being seen to be there.  Plus if you're not part of their crowd they're also crushingly lonely experiences.  At least the food is usually quite good.