The final count was 96 presentation submissions and now we’ve read, pondered, discussed and debated them all.  We are pleased (and frankly, a bit relieved) to say we can start replying to each of you who submitted something.  Watch your inbox today and tomorrow for a reply.

Once we get confirmation from those we’ve accepted saying that they are indeed coming to the conference, we will post the list of names and presenations here at the blog and on the website.  We should be able to have that list up early in January.

Thanks again to everyone who sent in a proposal.  We hope those who aren’t coming to present will be in the audience to take part in the great conversations that are sure to follow.

Just a quick update on the presentation reviewing process.  Our team is nearing the end of our discussions about the 93 presentations we received.  We should be ready sometime next week to reply back to those who sent in a proposal.  We won’t be ready by tomorrow as previously hoped, but we should be done “in a little while.”

Thanks for your patience!

(Wow, where did November go?)

While U2 continues to finish their new album — presumably overwhelmed with with wonderful song possibilities — we here at the U2 Conference were overwhelmed in early November by the 93 submissions we received from people wanting to make a presentation at the conference.

What sort of presentations did we get, you ask?  They are, delightfully, all over the map.  Thematically and literally: no less than seven countries are represented by the senders, and one presentation is even titled “U2 Cartography.”  It’s not easy to pick just a few for sharing, because so many of them sound so intriguing, but here’s a cross-section of titles we’ve received:

• U2’s ‘”Sunday, Bloody Sunday” as Public Memorial
• Grace Makes Beauty: The Rhetorical Strategies of Powerful Emotions in U2
• U2 and Igor Stravinsky: Textures, Timbres and the Devil
• The Quest for the Musical Jesus: Finding Jesus in the Music of U2
• So, a Philanthropist, a Rock Star, and a Marketeer Walk into Africa and . . .
• One Man Can Make a Difference: U2 and Engagement with the World
• Shock and Awe: U2 Discover America
• U2: An Elevated Brand
• Media Theory and Zoo TV: How U2 Exposed Postmodern Mediation
• Sampling and Reframing: The Evolving Live Concert Performances of  “Bullet the Blue Sky”

Our team of reviewers is in the home stretch of reading and discussing the submissions, fueled on this World AIDS day by our (Starbucks) Red drinks while we also keep an eye and ear focused on the new (RED) WIRE digital music magazine.  We will respond soon to those who sent submissions, then post later in December here on the blog the proposal titles we’ve accepted for the program.

Thanks for reading.