Notes

Packing my Bag

A longer time ago (11 years to be exact) I started to shoot what’s in my backpack bevor I took off to event adventures. I did not shoot many of them, but always liked the idea and brought this back now.

This time: Patterns Day in Brighton.

Packing my Bag

Andrew Scott

I stumbled over the artwork by Andrew Scott on Instagram. I like that he uses the whole thing, you attach to your wall as an art piece and not just what is in the frame ;)

Like this one, in which “the artwork” cracks the frame with a hammer. Or this one where the glass of the frame is hit with a baseball bat (he has more of this kind, with smashed glass).

Well, simply check all of his work ;) Oh, and of course: visit his website!

Farewell A Book Apart

I got many of their publications in my bookshelves or in my digital library. It feels like I bought the first one last month and now they are closing their doors.

This is a farewell and thanks for all the wonderful publications. 🥂 to Jason Santa Maria, Katel LeDu (always a pleasure working with you also on partnerships!), Jeffrey Zeldman and anyone else involved of course!

Sad to see you leaving the publishing stage!

Links with Tips and Advice for Public Speaking

Note: This article was originally posted on 18 January 2020, but I updated it several times and today, 1 March 2024, again

I collected these links to write a blog post at some point, but did not get to the point writing it, yet. Now, to make use of my list already, before getting to the point finally writing a blog post about public speaking, I have sorted my notes and list them here in no specific order. And I am going to let you know as soon as the actual blog post is done. Plus I am, of course, adding new resources any time I find something new.

Writing a Proposal

Writing About Yourself aka Writing Your Bio

Writing and Preparing a Talk

Creating Slides

General Public Speaking Tips (covering the above often as well):

Books

That's it for now, but I am pretty sure I gonna update it regularly. It would be wonderful, if you send me an email in case you have more links, books or anything that completes this list to learn about public speaking and presenting on stage.

Stewart Copeland in Chat with Rick Beato

I really, really enjoyed watching this. Not just because of the content. Those two guys get along well and you can feel the atmosphere in the room. Copeland surely respects Beato and I think Copeland is a funny guy also. Interesting, fun conversation to follow, I think. Not only if you are into music or like The Police.

The Gatekeepers Podcast with Jamie Bartlett

A few days ago a new podcast with the title “The Gatekeepers” was published on BBC Radio 4. A podcast with and by author and journalist Jamie Bartlett in which he traces the story of how and why social media have become the new information gatekeepers.

I have been in touch with Jamie a couple of times, as well as now again, to get him to Berlin’s edition of my event, and know of him through his published books such as The Dark Net (2014), Radicals [< affiliate link] (2017), The People Vs Tech: How the Internet Is Killing Democracy (2018) or last but not least The Missing Cryptoqueen [< affiliate link] (2022). All well worth reading. Next to this, I am subscribed to his newsletter “How to survive the Internet” on Substack.

Yesterday I got notice, that he started a new podcast titled The Gatekeepers and so far I have listened to the first two episodes. The description of the introduction episode reads as follows:

It all started with a crazy idea to realise a hippie dream of building a “global consciousness”. The plan was to build a connected world, where everyone could access everyone and everything all the time; to overthrow the old gatekeepers and set information free.

But social media didn’t turn out that way. Instead of setting information free – a new digital elite conquered the world and turned themselves into the most powerful people on the planet.

Now, they get to decide what billions of us see every day. They can amplify you. They can delete you. Their platforms can be used to coordinate social movements and insurrections. A content moderator thousands of miles away can change your life. What does this mean for democracy – and our shared reality?

Jamie Bartlett traces the story of how and why social media have become the new information gatekeepers, and what the decisions they make mean for all of us.

Sounds exciting, doesn’t it? And so far, first two episodes in, I find it an exciting podcast with a very interesting topic.

But listen yourself: The Gatekeepers with Jamie Bartlett on BBC (or on any podcasting platform of your choice) …

Shift Happens – A Book Project by Marcin Wichary

I think, but am not sure, I heard of Shift Happens, the book project of Marcin Wichary, when he spoke at beyond tellerrand in 2018, where he gave a brilliant talk about “The Abridged History Of Having Fun \/\/ith Keyboards” (watch the talk here on YouTube). Back then he already started working on it, but I think it was in the pretty early days.

Marcin’s book project is the best selling tech book on Kickstarter ever with over $750,000 pledged. Even though I said, I never gonna back anything on Kickstarter anymore, I supported Marcin’s project of course.

This morning I got my edition of “Shift Happens” and could not help, but make a few photos that you can find here to get a first impression of the books, their case and how it looks and feels.

Massive congrats to Marcin. Can’t wait to meet hi next time and ask him all the questions about the book, the process of everything and more.

See the photos I took here

A Walk in the Sun – Remembering my Brother

It was such a wonderful day over here yesterday. We took it as a chance to take a long walk along the Rhine.

It was such a great feeling to have the sun back. I knew it before, but I am really dependent on the weather and my mood is heavily influenced by how light or dark a day is. OK for a day, but if it is dark and grey over a period of weeks, I can’t help, but am tired and unmotivated.

On another note, today is the birthday of my brother, who died 2013 surprisingly. I think of him and send him a massive hug. Happy birthday, Kurti!

Release Night of “This Is What I Want To Do”

Like I said before, I was shitting my pants before I had seen the film. Andreas Brüggemann and Stefan Nitzsche were working on this since beginning on 2019 and many things happened during this time. Many things that those two might see different to how I see it and in general they have a different view on things than I do. That is perfectly fine, especially as I would never think any either of them would have any intention to harm beyond tellerrand or me. But surely they also did not want to create and advertisement film about my event and needed a certain distance to the event and also me. Difficult situation for them. Now, last Friday was the day, when they were finally and proudly presenting the first film of this kind they ever did together.

A squared image with a black and white photo. You can see Marc Thiele in the front and the audience of his event in the background. A white logo stating “This is what I want to do”, looking like being painted with a brush sits above Marc.

In the following I won’t give any feedback on how the film is. I think it is not on me to decide how well made, good or needed the film is. I am too close to the subject of the film and can’t judge about this or whether a film about what I do and who I am is needed on this planet 😁, but I have to say I had a wonderful evening.

At 7:30pm doors opened for 200+ invited guests. A variety of drinks and a few nibbles were offered and I was surprisingly recognising that the people showing up were a wonderful mix of my past and present. People I haven seen for more than ten year mixed with family, people I regularly see these days and people from my web and design bubble. That was lovely to see.

8:15pm we went into the cinema and the film was shown. After roughly 1,5 hours, people applauded and stood up and it seems they had liked what Andreas and Stefan made here. The two, Elliot, who was the MC for the night, Nicolas Schuele, who created the music for the film and I had been asked to come on stage for a round of questions. When it came to me and the question what I had to say, I said something like “I am very happy and humble about all the lovely things that had been said about me and beyond tellerrand in this film. Thank you. But surely for me all this feels a bit awkward and crinchy, as it must be for my family and especially my children, right?” – I looked to where our three children were sitting, but thy all were shaking their heads and said they massively enjoyed and liked the film and later on said they are proud … wow. If not anything else, but THIS really made my evening!

Now this chapter is closed and I can say “There is a documentary, a film, about beyond tellerrand and me, Marc Thiele”. I am not sure if Andreas and Stefan plan to publish it somewhere online. Right now, I think, they have plans to leave it unpublished to have the chance of being part of some film festivals. I keep you posted about their plans of which one is to show the film again around beyond tellerrand in May.

Thanks to Andreas, Stefan and Nicolas for all their work on this project.

A Film About Me and What I Do – I am Afraid

A statement upfront: by the time writing these lines, I haven’t seen anything from the documentary apart of the three trailers on YouTube

It must have been end of 2018 or maybe beginning 2019 that Stefan Nitzsche approached me with the idea of creating a documentary about beyond tellerrand and, well, me. He and his friend Andreas Brüggemann wanted to create a film about the event, the people coming and my input to make it what it is. I wasn’t sure, if someone really needs this, but I liked the idea for some reason and we met for a first chat about a theme and reason to create this documentary.

If you know me, I am not a person who likes to point the camera into my face and tell you how great I am or how cool it is that I make. I like what I do, I learned in 23+ years of doing what I do, to be kind of proud of what I do and especially of what I have achieved over the years. But I would not – for a single moment – think about creating a movie about myself or my work.

That was also one thing I wanted to make very clear to Andy and Stefan. It is their work, their project and I have no saying in the final outcome. I also wanted to make sure that anyone who gets notice about the film clearly understands, that I have nothing to do with it. I did not plan anything, I had no saying on how this film would be created, what it contains or what the overall story would be. So we needed to sit down in the beginning, so that I would get an impression about their overall storyline and idea of why they want to create such a documentary.

Their first idea beginning 2019 was to take the three cities beyond tellerrand took place in by then as the hooks: Düsseldorf, Berlin and Munich. Later that shifted to the idea of showing the three “main groups” at such an event: the attendees, the speakers, the organiser. Once more, I need to emphasise, that I don’t think what I do is special, but I do understand, that the fact that a single person runs everything (even the tech on stage) sounds crazy – well, and it sometimes is.

I do also see, that the people attending create the atmosphere, many people talk about. The friendliness, the warm, welcoming vibe. And yes, maybe it is because I set the tone for this. But would this make me create a film about it?

So the question for me at this point, two weeks before the premiere of this film takes place: Why does someone want to create a film about me and what I do?

As said above, I have no decision in what they gonna show and I am pretty sure, many of the things told and show will be “too much”, too bold for me and my taste.

At this point right now, I am afraid. Afraid that I don’t like what they have done. Afraid of the reactions of others. Afraid of the idea that someone thinks I told them to create this film about beyond tellerrand and me. Would you be afraid? But I guess, there is no return now? People have been invited and I can’t not show up. That would be rude to Stefan and Andreas who put in so much time and work and also to the people they invited. But I’d love to hide or be there dressed up at someone else. 🙈

I remember what Seb Lester said once on stage, when he showed a still of a YouTube video by Casey Neistat, in which he was a guest:

Can you imagine, how a trapped rabbit feels? That was me in this situation.

I first said, I don’t want to see the movie, but a few things that happened along the way made me change my decision here and I asked the two to please send me a preview, which I will watch in the next das. You know, I bet it will be a nice evening, where I hopefully see a lot of nice people. And maybe the whole situation isn’t as bad as I imagine it right now. Let’s find out. It is simply not my nature to be in the spotlight like this.