信不信：無聊大會(huì)受熱捧

Most conferences tend to be boring, although not intentionally so. But there is one event that is deliberately dedicated to all things dull and tedious – the 'Boring Conference' hosted every year at London. Believe it or not, it's a sell-out event where attendees are treated to talks on all sorts of boring things like paper bags, toilet roll quality control, lamp posts, and bricks.

大多數(shù)會(huì)議往往都很無聊，盡管這并不是組織者的本意。但是有人故意組織一場(chǎng)會(huì)議，說的都是全然無趣又乏味的事物，那就是每年在倫敦舉辦的“無聊大會(huì)”。信不信由你，這個(gè)活動(dòng)非常賣座，與會(huì)者能聽到的就是關(guān)于各種各樣無聊事情的講話，比如紙袋、卷筒衛(wèi)生紙的質(zhì)量控制、燈柱，和磚塊。

How did such a thing as a Boring Conference come to exist, you ask? Well, it all started in 2010, when the man in charge of organizing an event called the Interesting Conference canceled the whole thing, saying that he was too busy. James Ward, an English book author and marketer, replied to the announcement, saying that he liked boring things and that they should be celebrated too. His social media post got a lot of people interested in a possible event about boring things and he started getting questions about where to buy tickets for it. That year, Ward organized the world's first Boring Conference.

你要問了，像“無聊會(huì)議”這樣的活動(dòng)是怎么發(fā)展起來的呢?是這樣的，它起步于2010年，當(dāng)時(shí)負(fù)責(zé)組織一個(gè)叫做“趣味大會(huì)”的人說他太忙了，就取消了那次活動(dòng)。詹姆斯•沃德是一位英文圖書作者兼營(yíng)銷人員，他在社交媒體上發(fā)帖回應(yīng)這一聲明說，他喜歡無聊的事，無聊的事也應(yīng)該慶祝。他的帖子引發(fā)了許多人對(duì)這個(gè)可能會(huì)存在的關(guān)于無聊事情的活動(dòng)的興趣，于是人們開始問他在哪里能買到這種活動(dòng)的票。那一年，沃德組織了世界上第一場(chǎng)“無聊大會(huì)”。

This year's Boring Conference, held at London's Conway Hall on 7 May, was the sixth consecutive event in the last six years and all 425 tickets were sold out in just a few days. Ward always opens up the event himself, because he likes to "set the bar low". If people start with poor expectations, then the show can only improve, he says. Last year, he spoke about postcard photos of the old Post Office Tower.

今年的無聊大會(huì)于5月7日在倫敦康威會(huì)堂舉辦，這是過去六年來連續(xù)舉辦的第六次活動(dòng)，一共425張票，短短幾天就賣光了。沃德總是第一個(gè)講話，因?yàn)樗氚?ldquo;目標(biāo)設(shè)低”。他說如果人們一開始就不抱什么期望的話，演出就只會(huì)越來越好。去年他講的是明信片上老郵政大樓的照片。

According to the event's website, "The Boring Conference is a one-day celebration of the mundane, the ordinary, the obvious and the overlooked; subjects often considered trivial and pointless, but when examined more closely reveal themselves to be deeply fascinating."

根據(jù)此活動(dòng)的網(wǎng)站，“無聊大會(huì)為期一天，是一場(chǎng)慶祝平凡普通、顯而易見卻又容易被忽略的事物的活動(dòng);那些經(jīng)常被視作微不足道、毫無意義的事物，一旦更仔細(xì)地審視它們，就會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)其中深藏的魅力。”

Past topics of discussion at the Boring Conference have included – sneezing, IBM tills, toast, vending machine sounds, barcodes, the Shipping Forecast and other such topics of no interest to anyone. This year's event had 20 speakers cover similar snoozeworthy subjects – such as the domestic inkjet printers of 1999, German film titles, cooking elaborate meals with hotel room equipment, and the similarities between the world’s national anthems – in 10-minute slots.

無聊大會(huì)過去討論的話題包括打噴嚏、IBM收款機(jī)、烤面包、自動(dòng)售貨機(jī)的聲音、條形碼、海上天氣預(yù)報(bào)，還有其它類似的沒人感興趣的話題。今年的大會(huì)有20位演講者，話題也同樣讓人聽了打瞌睡——比如說1999年的家用噴墨式打印機(jī)、德國(guó)電影的名字、怎么用旅館房間里的設(shè)備做出精致菜肴、還有世界各國(guó)國(guó)歌的相似性，每個(gè)人的發(fā)言時(shí)間為10分鐘。

If you're wondering about the purpose of such a pointless conference, Ward says that it's meant to be "a one-day celebration of the mundane, the ordinary, the obvious and the overlooked." He adds that the topics covered may be considered "trivial and pointless, but when you look at them more closely, they reveal themselves to be actually deeply fascinating." So it's actually only the topics that are boring – the speakers are expected to find a way to make their talks interesting.

如果你想知道舉辦這種沒有意義的大會(huì)目的何在，沃德說“這一天是為了慶祝平凡普通、顯而易見卻又容易被忽視的事物。”他補(bǔ)充說，人們可能認(rèn)為涉及的話題“瑣碎無味，但當(dāng)你更細(xì)致地審視它們，就會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)它們深藏的魅力。”因此，事實(shí)上只有話題是無聊的——人們期待著演講者能夠找到方法，讓他們的講話變得有趣。

"The basic idea is that the theme needs to be boring, but the content shouldn't be," explained Ward, who works in marketing and has also written a book called Adventures in Stationery: A Journey Through Your Pencil Case. "There has to be something in the topic that a speaker with a real enthusiasm for it can bring out and make interesting. In fact most things, if you look at them in enough detail, can become fascinating. There's almost always something there."

“基本理念就是，主題是應(yīng)該是無聊的，但內(nèi)容不無聊，”沃德解釋道，他在營(yíng)銷領(lǐng)域工作，還寫了一本書，叫做《在文具中冒險(xiǎn)：鉛筆盒之旅》。“話題中必須有演講者真正熱愛的東西，這樣才可以把它挖掘出來，使它變得有趣。事實(shí)上大多數(shù)東西，只要你足夠細(xì)致地觀察它們，都會(huì)變得迷人。幾乎總會(huì)有迷人的地方。”

So in the past, a talk about electric hand dryers has been made interesting with a story about "a man so fascinated by them that he had installed a Dyson Airblade in his house." And a speaker scheduled to talk about the relative weights and densities of different kinds of metals enthralled the audience by rollerblading around the hall the entire time. It's no wonder that the Boring Conference is sold out every year, then!

所以之前關(guān)于干手機(jī)的演講就因?yàn)橐粋€(gè)故事而變得非常有趣——“一個(gè)男人對(duì)干手機(jī)非常著迷，于是就在家里裝了一臺(tái)戴森Airblade干手機(jī)。”還有一個(gè)演講者，本來計(jì)劃講不同金屬的相對(duì)重量和密度，可他全程都在大廳里溜旱冰，觀眾們都被他迷住了。怪不得無聊大會(huì)每年都這么賣座!

Vocabulary

mundane: 世俗的，平凡的

enthrall: 使著迷