Short talks. Guaranteed conversation.

Small Talks is a social night built around fast, funny, PowerPoint-assisted talks on strange, obsessive, completely unnecessary topics, with one rule: no talking about work.

Each speaker gets 10–12 minutes to make the case for something they care about a little too much. The result? A room full of conversation starters.

After every talk there’s a short Q&A (as serious or unserious as you like).

There’s a break halfway through to grab a drink and chat. When the talks are done, the room is yours: talk to strangers, argue, laugh, or just observe. Low pressure, high curiosity, zero networking, minimal lo-fi background music so you don’t have to yell.

This isn’t networking or a lecture. It’s structured curiosity, followed by unstructured conversation.

Expect:

•⁠ ⁠around 5 short talks

•⁠ ⁠conversation starters (and potentially small amounts of organised fun)

•⁠ ⁠drinks encouraged - whatever keeps your brain lubricated.

•⁠ ⁠low stakes - these talks aren't inaccessible. They aren't even usually academic.*

*If you're curious, some examples of previous speeches:

What words does David Bowie use the most?

Who were the Highgate Cemetery vampires actually?

A computer cannot actually generate a random number???

A not-so-brief history of the Village People

How do dating apps actually work?

The Victoria Line is the best line

To keep up with this lineup and future events, subscribe to our (very light touch) newsletter! (https://smalltalksldn.substack.com/)

Venue access information:

Coin Laundry is on the north side of Exmouth Market. The venue has one step to access and then we're down a flight of stairs. The bar is upstairs; toilets are located downstairs towards the back of the event room. The venue is air conditioned.

Small Talks access policy:

Small Talks is run by two friends, part-time, for fun, on a very small budget. We don’t have the budget or resources to provide extensive accessibility services. We want to be upfront about what we can and can’t offer so you can decide whether the event works for you.

If you have an access need that means you need to sit somewhere specific (i.e. near the front), we’re happy to reserve a suitable seat for you. This is for access needs rather than general seat reservations.

We aren’t able to provide BSL interpretation, live captioning, audio description, large-print materials, livestreaming or recordings. Individual talks may also include audio, music or other presentation elements, depending on the speaker.

We don’t typically provide a full list of individual talk tiitles in advance (speakers are often finalising down to the wire, plus Small Talks is deliberately informal and spontaneous, and part of the fun is finding out what people have come to talk about on the night). But if you do need it for your own access needs we can provide a list of topics on request about a week in advance; just email us.

Description supplied by the event organiser.