Boring Conference sells out

It follows the success of previous years' talks on sounds made by vending machines and the features of the Yamaha PSR-175 Portatune keyboard.

London’s annual Boring Conference has sold out, with this year’s speakers set to give talks on East German pedestrian crossing signals, paper bags, lamp posts, toilet roll quality control codes and bricks.

The conference takes place at 10am in Conway Hall this Saturday (7 May), having been founded in response to the cancellation of the 2010 Interesting Conference because “it seemed like the obvious thing to do".

Previous years have seen people discuss such tedious topics as sneezing, toast, IBM tills, the sounds made by vending machines, the Shipping Forecast, the television programme Antiques Road Trip and the features of the Yamaha PSR-175 Portatune keyboard.

The one-day celebration of the mundane invites sadists to sit through its duration, but also aims to reveal the deeply fascinating elements of subjects than initially sound trivial and pointless.

"I am pleased that we are once again hosting this event at Conway Hall in central London,” commented organiser James Ward, the author of Adventures in Stationery: A Journey Through Your Pencil Case, which was given two stars out of five by Ben Richardson in the South China Morning Post.

“It is, of course, the 22nd anniversary of the recovery of Edvard Munch's iconic painting The Scream undamaged after being stolen from the National Gallery of Norway. My assistant said to me while were stapling the agendas together that she thought it might be quite a nice idea to pay homage. Quick as a flash I suggested that we invite the audience to imitate the scream from their seats. 'Yes, let's see how long that lasts', she replied encouragingly."