What is the best seminar that you have ever attended? And what made it so good?<\/p>\n
I pondered this question after my name appeared on the list of speakers for our internal divisional seminar series this term. I thought that, rather than give another run-of-the-mill progress report, I might have a little fun with the format. And perhaps make a useful point at the same time.<\/p>\n
So I gave my talk the title “Mind-blowing work of staggering genius: Probably the best seminar you will ever attend<\/strong>.” It seemed to provoke a deal of interest \u2014 a sizeable audience trooped into the lecture theatre at the appointed hour \u2014 though, as you will see, one of my colleagues was none too impressed.<\/p>\n If you have 25 minutes to spare, you can watch the (edited) talk here. It features the longest lead-in to a joke that I have ever done \u2014 about four minutes forty-five seconds.<\/p>\n