[UPDATE: Holy Haleakala! TAM London sold out in an hour. I would like to personally thank everyone who organized the registration; there were some problems they were quickly solved or worked around, and the end result is a sold-out meeting. I apologize to those who didn't get tickets, but that just means we'll have to find a much bigger venue next time!]
I am very excited to announce that registration for The Amaz!ng Meeting London is now open! You can register for it at the TAM London site. Assuming I haven’t screwed up my time zone conversion, that is. Registration opens at noon BST (GMT +1).
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The speaker lineup is really something: Richard Dawkins, Brian Cox, Ariane Sherine, Ben Goldacre, Simon Singh, Adam Savage, Randi, and li’l ole me. And, I’ll add, we’re still keeping our fingers crossed rubbing our rabbit’s foot wishing hoping to add one or two more folks we know you’ll love, too… but no promises. We’re still in the "hoping they can come" stage.
It’ll be a brilliant weekend, and I’m already impatient for it! Of course, there’s still TAM in Vegas in July before then, too. So I guess it’s the Summer (and early autumn) of Skepticism.
For more info, you can follow TAMLondon on Twitter and also join the Facebook page.
May 11th, 2009 at 5:38 am
There’s a good amount of traffic at the site, but it also appears that Google checkout doesn’t want to accept addresses in the USA at the moment.
May 11th, 2009 at 5:48 am
They’ve put up a workaround on the site for US buyers. If you keep getting Google checkout “Oops!” errors, try another card – that worked for me.
May 11th, 2009 at 5:58 am
Check out finished at 12:08 … beat that !!!
p.s. I almost paid £999 for s&h … nasty google checkout … beware!
May 11th, 2009 at 6:07 am
The google checkout don’t accept any non-UK adresses for whatever reason. A workaround is to just type in any old UK adress, just be careful to put in YOUR name and adress at first on the TAM site.
May 11th, 2009 at 6:31 am
TAMLondon now officially recommends to use “3 More London Riverside, London, SE1 6RE” with any UK tel number (e.g. +44 207 xxx xxxx) (via twitter)
May 11th, 2009 at 6:39 am
I can’t access it !! It keeps saying “Due to increased demand, the TAM London site is unavailable for the moment. Please try again later”.
Is there another way ???????? Help!!!
May 11th, 2009 at 6:47 am
Gib, it said that for me for a while, just keep refreshing and it’ll work eventually.
May 11th, 2009 at 6:52 am
Any idea yet what kind of time of day the event will begin and end?
May 11th, 2009 at 6:53 am
Just got my tickets as well. Had to use a friend’s address in the UK. Also almost paid 999 pounds for shipping. But it worked in the end!
May 11th, 2009 at 6:59 am
I’ve been refreshing all day.
Everyone else stop refreshing for 10 minutes so I can get through please, and then you can all continue……..
Phil, while you were in London last time I gave you a DVD with the last couple of Doctor Who episodes on it. Could you help me out and email me the secret backdoor to the registration site please !!!
May 11th, 2009 at 7:18 am
OK, great. I got through, and paid with paypal, but it’s charging as USD. 200USD for the show and comedy thingo.
I hope my order doesn’t get cancelled. Happy to pay the correct amount if there’s a way to do so.
May 11th, 2009 at 7:35 am
Wooh! See y’all there:D
May 11th, 2009 at 8:12 am
Update from the webmaster is that it’s all sold out!
May 11th, 2009 at 8:12 am
TAMLondon just announced via twitter that the event “seems to be” SOLD OUT … lol
May 11th, 2009 at 8:36 am
Waaaahhh????
SOLD OUT??
Say it ain’t so…
May 11th, 2009 at 8:43 am
Phil just tweeted it was sold out in an hour. I hope not. I put my order through after 2 hours !
May 11th, 2009 at 8:47 am
Can’t wait to see you all there!
))
May 11th, 2009 at 9:02 am
Apparently there are a few more tickets… go for it Vince!
May 11th, 2009 at 9:14 am
How about you OPT for a much bigger venue this time, huh, Phil ?
May 11th, 2009 at 9:31 am
Better book Wembley stadium next year.
May 11th, 2009 at 9:41 am
I’m totally gutted, spent the last four hours trying to access the site and now it’s sold out. Was really looking forward to this
very unhappy 
May 11th, 2009 at 9:48 am
I was looking forward to this… living in London and all.
When’s the next one… and can I place a reservation now?
May 11th, 2009 at 9:48 am
“Better book Wembley stadium next year.”
Make it the Millennium Stadium. I can get to Cardiff… ;o)
Or even more preferable, have a TAM Liverpool or TAM Manchester instead!
D
May 11th, 2009 at 10:06 am
That’s a bit of a bummer, I did not have access to the internet at noon and now it’s all sold out.
It would have been better to have the registration opening at night, as it now only unemployed and idle office people will show up.
Unfortunately this was my last year in London, hope there will be a TAM Australia.
May 11th, 2009 at 10:06 am
Aw… nuts!
I’ve been working all day and was rather hoping there’d be some left when I got home.
when is the next one?
May 11th, 2009 at 10:20 am
Hey Phil you need to bring TAM! to Canada.
Can I suggest Vancouver? It is a lovely city in the summer:D
May 11th, 2009 at 10:59 am
Great logo! Love it, who made it?
May 11th, 2009 at 11:10 am
What’s the maximum number of people who ever attended the Vegas TAM ? Just wondering how keen us English are…
I think perhaps this TAM shouldn’t have been open to USA people unless there were spare tickets available after a few weeks……. Sorry guys, but I’ve been hanging out to attend TAM forever (well 5 years), but couldn’t make it all the way to Vegas.
Now there’s one in my home town, it wouldn’t be fair if I didn’t get a ticket. (I think I did get a ticket though. We’ll see….) Perhaps the Americans who did get a ticket and who have already been to a TAM Vegas (or will be going this year) might offer theirs to a poor Londoner who can’t get to Vegas…
May 11th, 2009 at 11:10 am
Skibuff: 12:07 and this after fighting the s&h thingy.
Thomas: Get your pen out and write an essay for one of those scholarships!
May 11th, 2009 at 11:20 am
Bugger. (Can I say bugger here? I want to use something stronger.)
Ah well. Please get more room next year. Perhaps I’ll even be able to afford the trip and have some vacation saved up for it by then.
May 11th, 2009 at 11:23 am
I hope I got a place. I used paypal and was charged $200 rather than £200. I didn’t think it would go that quickly and had already booked a cheap(ish) flight and hotel
May 11th, 2009 at 11:41 am
NOOOOO sold out. That makes me a sad panda
May 11th, 2009 at 11:46 am
Sold out already? What’s the venue, a pub? How many tickets were available? Why not change venues?
May 11th, 2009 at 12:58 pm
Sandra (MedTek: Scholarships are meant to help those who can not afford the fee. Maybe I can pay someone to write an essay and pass it as my own, the person will miss out on TAM this year but can afford admission next year
May 11th, 2009 at 1:41 pm
Does anyone know how many people there were at the skeptics event which Randi attended in London, and also had Wiseman.. It was at a hall near Russel Square I think, last year or so.
It’s a double story theatre, and I think there were at least 500 people there. To think less people than that would come to TAM London is obviously wrong. In hindsight at least….
May 11th, 2009 at 1:44 pm
Good point Gib.
Conway Hall holds about 300:
http://www.conwayhall.org.uk/hire.htm
I think there were only 300 TAM tickets available.
May 11th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
The website says that TAM London will be held at the Mermaid Conference Centre, which seats up to 600 people. It’s hard to find a bigger and still suitable place in London.
May 11th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
It shouldn’t be so surprising this sold out so fast too. The proposed line up is even more impressive than TAM7’s! Richard Dawkins?! He could easily sell thousands of tickets on his own.
May 11th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
Thanks Sandra, Conway Hall – that was it.
Yeah, probably true about the difficulty of finding a place in London…. Not the most friendly city for that sort of thing, but I thought there’d be _something_.
Anyway, I’m sure organising these things without knowing how many people would come is a pain, and I couldn’t do it!
May 11th, 2009 at 11:23 pm
What are you guys talking about? London is one of the conference hubs of the world, there should be no difficulty in finding a suitable venue for almost any number of people (within reason of course).
It’s probably not practical to upgrade this years London TAM, but at least now there’s an idea of how many people will sign up. I can’t help thinking that a little research might have revealed the numbers a bit earlier. Hmmm…. we just need someone who likes to do research, what sort of person does that appeal to?
May 12th, 2009 at 3:33 am
Sold out??!?!! Nooooo!!
I was so looking forward to TAM London, and all my skeptic-friends are going it seems.. but not me
May 12th, 2009 at 4:20 am
# MHS Says:
May 11th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
The website says that TAM London will be held at the Mermaid Conference Centre, which seats up to 600 people. It’s hard to find a bigger and still suitable place in London.
No it isn’t there are hundreds of hotels that host huge conferrences. This was bad planning pure and simple. Was really looking forward to it
May 12th, 2009 at 4:32 am
I need TAM-Australia…I am a poor, poor science student, think of us!
If I do end up accruing any substantial amount of monies, to TAM I will go!
To everyone attending, enjoy. The line up is incredible.
May 12th, 2009 at 4:52 am
“It’s probably not practical to upgrade this years London TAM”
I disagree. I think, given the number of people disappointed, this could easily be moved to a much bigger venue now.
Robin Ince’s Lessons and Songs for Godless people, which also had Richard Dawkins, was at the Hammersmith Apollo, which seats 3,600. I don’t know if it was sold out, but it looked pretty full to me. Admittedly that had a few other big draws from comedy and music, such as Ricky Gervais and Jarvis Cocker, but nevertheless, the demand is obviously there for sceptical events and it’s naive not to realise that.
Please Phil, I’m sure you can find somewhere bigger.
May 12th, 2009 at 6:22 am
Holy cow. I was really keen to go, but when I saw the price tag I was gutted. I can’t really justify spending £175 to hang out with nerds in my own town. I can do that at Skeptics in the Pub.
May 12th, 2009 at 7:41 am
How disappointing. I had been looking forward to this event. But by time I got onto the tamlondon site, just 2 hours after it apparently opened it had already been closed due to demand and when i tried again in the evening after returning home from work it was apparently sold out.
Hope the demand means another TAM in the UK soon
May 12th, 2009 at 7:45 am
I’ll echo here what I said on the facebook page:
I really have to complain about registration – it was a shambles. The website is where I was expecting to register, and I also expected it to be down due to demand. (Why, by the way? The amount of traffic was easy to predict based on the interest shown on this group.) It was, with the instructions to check back later.
I checked back about an hour later, exactly as instructed, and was told that the event was sold out. How could it be sold out if the website was down? When I got home from work, the reason was apparent – workarounds to bypass the crashed site were communicated by facebook or twitter.
It was natural to assume that the whole system was offline. Why did the website not say “Check twitter/facebook for updates”? Many of us do not route recreational website traffic to work, so did not see the updates.
On the plus side, I’ve just saved £200.
May 12th, 2009 at 9:44 am
Folks–
Just to let you know, we did a LOT of research before choosing the Mermaid. There are not a lot of venues in the UK big enough to hold the number of people we wanted. We also needed good support facilities, it had to be near an airport (no 2 hour train rides to smaller towns outside London), we didn’t want it to be in a dicey area, and so on. This limits the places we could hold TAML to just handful. And of those, there had to be availability; these places book up a long time in advance, and our dates were limited by our guests’ availability.
If you’ve never held a big conference before, it’s not exactly easy!
Finally, as for the number of seats, that was a guess based on several difficult to determine variables. TAMs in Vegas takes many weeks to fill up; we just passed the 600 mark for TAM 7, which has been open for registration for many weeks. The US has 300 million people; the UK 1/5 that. Etc. We thought we might sell out, but we also thought that if we did it would take at least a week or two, and realistically a month.
Finally, we’re looking into options right now, but we’ll see. We’re somewhat flexible, but circumstances may not be. We’ll do what we can to optimize this event for everyone!
May 12th, 2009 at 4:01 pm
I think this sold out because there are so many people this side of the Atlantic who could only previously drool from afar (like me) and dream of being able to afford the travel costs to get to a TAM in the USA. As it’s been going for a few years, we’ve been getting more and more worked up that we can’t go. Then suddenly, here it is in London! BAM! I think that’s your explanation for the quick sales
I was one of the lucky ones who had both the opportunity to get in quick and the conviction that such a thing was necessary (I had a feeling it would be a massive rush). I took my lunch break at 11:58 at work and was pressing F5 for two minutes… mind you, I still had to deal with the bizarre 999.99 postage cost issue. It was pretty tense
As soon as I realised how quickly the tickets were going, I felt bad for all those people I knew would miss out through not being in the right place at the right time. My commiserations, and I sincerely hope it works out for you all eventually, whenever that may be.
May 13th, 2009 at 5:27 am
Yeah actually I regularly organize big conferrences as its my job, with the biggest property information company in europe. In London there are plenty of places that match your description, try this one for example: Novotel London West, One Shortlands, Hammersmith International Ctre., W6 8DR London, United Kingdom. They can usually occomodate any size of crowd, and are never sold out (the place is huge)
May 13th, 2009 at 7:16 am
We are going to have a kick-ass convention in Sydney in Nov. 2010 – SGU, all 5 of them and maybe a certain BA !
May 13th, 2009 at 7:19 am
AUSTRALIAN CONFERENCE – http://www.qldskeptics.com/
University of Queensland, 28th and 29th November 2009, at the Riverview Room – Emmanuel College.
Will feature:
Dr Karl Kruszelnicki – ABC Science guru
Dr Krissy Wilson – The Psychology of Belief
Associate Professor Tony Taylor – Author of ‘Denial – History Betrayed’
Dr Martin Bridgstock – Life member of Aus Skeptics and Inaugural winner of the Skeptics prize for Critical Thinking.
Peter Ellerton – Winner 2008 prize for Critical Thinking
Don’t forget the 2010 conference – in Sydney!
May 14th, 2009 at 11:45 am
I’m one of the lucky ones who got a ticket to TAM London, yahoo!
And now I have to go to Australia in nov. 2010 as well. Curses, hehe.
Just a note on the expected number of attendees for TAM London; UK may be 1/5 the population og the USA. Western Europe alone however, has 700+ mill people.
And there’s the drooling bit mentioned earlier as well, just the thought of it makes my salivary glands go all pavlovian in true Homer simpson fashion.
Big thanks to th JREF and its hive overmind for making this happen!