Hot

• The first 30 minutes of Explosions in the sky

Between 11am and 12 pm on Wednesday 10^th October at the BSF Explosions in the sky attracted a large audience (including myself) who were eager to learn about the topic.

The talk was split into two halves, Louise Harra started the talk and Mike Lockwood conducted the second half.

Louise Harra conducted an engaging talk, which used visual representation very effectively to back up her clear, simple and well catered points which made the subject easily understandable for members of the audience.

• The Huxley Debate

Also delivered on the Wednesday 10^th October was The Huxley Debate between 6pm and 7pm. At £6 this was one of the priced events of the festival which delivered in repaying the audience with strong engagement and entertainment for the evening.

Delivered by Aral Baklan, the talk was based on exposing the security flaws of companies such as Facebook and Google and the way these ‘free’ apps make money. In short, the reason was by using your personal data which proved to get a great reaction from the audience.

Aral was an excellent speaker who had the ability to keep the audience hanging on his every word. As an American who could have been described as Steve jobs long lost twin in appearance and way of interaction, what he got so very right was showing his passion shine through in the talk. 

• Frogs and Friends

A comedy based learning experience on the same night as the previous two was a light hearted, funny and memorable talk. This was also a worthwhile priced event at £6.

Simon Watt (the ugly Animal Preservation society’s professor of comedy) was the stand out of a triple act which took place between 7:30 pm and 9pm.

In this case, his dry comedic sense of humour was a hit with the audience and his likable engagement with us proved to make this the most memorable event of festival.

If you fancy yourself as the next Peter Kay, why not give comedy a go in making your Festival of learning event one to remember?

Very Hot

• Your astonishing liver

On the last day of the festival it was incredibly clear that the health related topics were/are a real hit with the general public. Delivered by a team of scientists and surgeons, there was a packed audience which watched this talk. The event was delivered for all varying levels of knowledge in the field and with the use of visual aids worked very smoothly.

Having four speakers really seemed to work, by having a small section of the topic to comment on this kept the audience engaged throughout. Running between 2-3pm this was also a free event!

The interactive side saw electronic yes/no devices handed out to the audience, after asking really strong questions for debate we would answer the question with a yes/no/not sure answer and visual graphs with the data collected would appear on the board. This was the best way the public were engaged out of the events I had attended over the week.

Other notable ‘hot’ events were: A night at the museum (although overpriced), Greg and Alice Roberts and the concept of The X-Change (had good days/ bad days)