I WILL FOLLOW
The U2 Conference 2022
A Year of Exploring the Zoo TV Tour
The U2 Conference 2022 will explore the Zoo TV tour with virtual events for fans, students, and scholars, running throughout the year in pop-up programming style. To mark the 30th anniversary of the start the Zoo TV tour–the jewel in the crown of U2’s most transformative era–we’re thinking of the role of The Screen as an instrument of U2’s reinvention, affection, and critique. With the theme of “Watch More TV,” we’re wondering how U2 was as sincere as it was ironic in its embrace of The Screen (then and now). How does a band who sings “it’s true we are immune, when fact is fiction and TV reality” and mocks the “vision” of “Tele-Vision” so effectively take advantage of screens, rapid communication technologies, and new media platforms to deliver social, political, and personal messaging about the technologies which bring us together threaten to also tear us apart?
What do you want?
Tell us, and The U2 Conference team will work with you to make it happen, schedule it, and spread the word. We aren’t planning for just one big program moment in 2022; instead, we’ll gather from time to time for presentations, performances, discussion groups, chats, and any other creative ways you dream up to engage the U2 community about Zoo TV then and now. Please see How to Submit a Proposal for more information on the conference theme, suggested topics, and proposal guidelines.
Our team will create some special events too, but we’re excited to collaborate with the U2 community and facilitate turning your ideas into reality. When events and engagements are ready, we’ll announce it with plenty of advance notice. In the meantime, The U2 Conference Discord server is always open and ready for you to meet the other U2 fans, students, and scholars already there. It’s free to use and there are channels on The U2 Conference Discord server for text chats, voice chats, and video chats. There’s a pitch room too, called #U2con22-pitch, where you can brainstorm your proposal and get feedback from the community.
In addition to joining The U2 Conference Discord server, you can get updates and announcements about events by following The U2 Conference on Twitter and signing up for our emails.
Keep The U2 Conference going if you’re able. Your donation helps us continue our programming. Thank you!
How to Submit A Proposal
U2 fans, students, and scholars/aca-fans working in the area of U2 Studies have proved to be the hearts and minds of The U2 Conference experience. We look forward to a year of programming in 2022 that continues representing the diversity of backgrounds in U2 fandom. We’re committed to including presentations that help us explore the music, work and influence of U2 and its fans without privileging a type of educational preparation for the presenter or a type of format for the presentation. Our community is for presentations ranging from the casual to the formal, from curious, thoughtful fans from all walks of life and all career paths.
Events in 2022 will be online, with a mix of live and pre-recorded presentations or discussions, with chat and hangout spaces online that are always open and available for you to drop in. Therefore, we suggest crafting your proposal to take advantage of the free and most popular meeting spaces most fans are using (Zoom, Google Meet/Chat, MS Teams, our U2 Conference YouTube channel, and our U2 Conference Discord server).
Keeping in mind the conference theme of “Watch More TV: The Zoo TV Experience 30 Years Later,” we suggest proposals that think about 1992 as much as 2022 along these topics:
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Technology and the reinvention of U2 as rock stars
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The U2 fan’s experience of Zoo TV
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The possibilities of performance and persona
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Love and peace or else in a time of an antennas (and algorithms)
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Achtung! It’s the attention economy, baby.
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Media overloads and overlords drugging the nations
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Humor, the absurd, and rock ‘n’ roll
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Your idea for something else …
Here are some suggestions for how you can make your presentation or start a conversation:
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by giving a solo presentation
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by speaking on a panel you’ve organized with others
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by leading an open-call round-table discussion or Discord chat room on a topic of your choice
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by interviewing a person of interest to the U2 community on a topic relevant to the conference theme
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by presenting a poster or other type of infographic
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by creating and narrating a media gallery
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by leading a book or film discussion in a Discord channel
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by presenting a creative performance or demonstration relevant to the conference theme
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by a different way that you propose
Proposals should be submitted as a written description of 300-400 words or as a short, casual video of about five minutes. Your proposal should clearly explain what you intend to do and how it connects to the conference theme, the format you’d like to use, the delivery method you’d like to use, how much time you need for your presentation (if applicable), and when in 2022 you’d be ready to make your presentation or start leading a discussion group. Please include a short biographical description about yourself, or a resume or CV if you have one.
If you wish to volunteer as a host or moderator for an event that’s not your own, please submit a separate expression of interest, including your full name, affiliation, and experience in virtual event formats.
All proposals or questions about proposals should be sent to U2conferenceproposals@gmail.com. There is no deadline for proposals, but keep in mind that all accepted proposals should be designed to be delivered sometime in 2022. Decisions and replies from the conference team will be made on a rolling basis as proposals come in, normally within seven days of receipt of the proposal, The conference team will work with presenters/discussion leaders and offer resources and online platforms gratis. Presenters/discussion leaders will not be compensated by The U2 Conference nor charged a registration or presentation fee.
The U2 Conference team is:
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Scott Calhoun, Director, and Professor of English, Cedarville University
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David Comay, Independent Scholar
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Johnny Duncan, U2 Fan and Curious Human
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Sherry Lawrence, Former Staff Writer for atu2.com
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Angela Pancella, Director of Development and Parish Life at St. Francis Xavier (College Church), St. Louis. Contributor to U2 and the Religious Impulse: Take Me Higher
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Diane Rasmussen Pennington, U2 Fan, U2 Scholar, and Associate Professor of Information Science, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland
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Jo D., U2 Fan and creator of U2 and Coffee