About Accio

Accio UK 2005 is being hosted by Accio UK which is a non profit making club set up solely to organise and host Harry Potter events in the UK.

Membership of the club is a compulsory part of the attendance fee of the conference. Details of the constitution will be sent when registering for membership. It is however possible to become a supporting member of Accio which will entitle members to electronic versions of any post conference publications as well as voting rights for the next conference location.

Membership of Accio is currently limited to people over the age of 18 because of the nature of the academic discussions and workshops being hosted. If this policy is changed, we'll let you know. Any excess of income over expenditure will be donated to the National Literacy Trust.

About Us Accio UK is run by a committee of 9 members elected for the period of the conference organisation, who work alongside a number of dedicated volunteers. We are the Harry Potter fanatics working hard to organize Accio-2005. This is our chance to tell you a little bit about ourselves. To give you a better idea of who we are, each of us has compiled a three line paragraph about ourselves along with answering these 5 questions: 1) What's the most likely thing to make you laugh? 2) If you were at a dinner party, whom would you most like to sit next to, and why? 3) If you could make a one way trip in a timeturner. Would you use it? Forwards or backwards? 4) How did you get involved in Accio and why? 5) What topic of debate would you most like to participate in at a HP conference

Can you figure out who's who?

Organizers, Staff, & Committee Chairs

• Conference Chair, Ali Hewison
  • Al is 35 years old and currently undergoing her 3rd career transformation into an HR expert (she hopes) having previously dipped her toes in Law and banking. Al is a member of the HPfGU List Admin team and a LOON.
    1) I have a very unsophisticated sense of humour; I laugh at the simplest of things.
    2) JK Rowling, of course. I suspect she is very booked up these days though, so Nelson Mandela.
    3) There are many things I wish I hadn't done, and many events I wish had never happened, but unless I could undo those, I only want to go forward in normal time.
    4) I could only watch enviously when Nimbus-2003 took place on the other side of the Pond. The only way of ensuring that I, and fans like me could attend a conference, was to organize one.
    5) "Heroic Harry?" Or the mythology underpinning the Potterverse are probably my favourite topics, but I'm quite happy to discuss most things Potter-related.
• Secretary, Linda Jardine
  • Ms. Jardine is a 32 year old Administrator in a multinational paper recycling organization. Her hobbies are writing, swimming, crafts, music, traveling and everything and anything to do with Harry Potter. She is Scottish and is currently based in Ireland.
    1) Family and friends / Ron Weasley / Wile E. Coyote / next door's cat.
    2) With reference to our Conference Chair's answer above, JK Rowling would indeed be too busy to get to your dinner, Ali - because she would already be at mine! However, I'm sure she would be wishing she was at yours, because I would be bombarding her with questions about the Potterverse and the back story of the Marauders. If she excused herself to go to Ali's dinner, I would invite Robert Burns (poet) for an after dinner drink or two.
    3) Well, if we are using a Time-Turner, we must be in the Potterverse! Mindful of Professor Dumbledore's warning of the many consequences of changing past events, I would go back just to watch - to see what caused Snape to change sides - and to find out why Dumbledore believes his story.
    4) I have been involved with Accio since it first began to evolve. I firmly believe we are living through the most exciting time we will ever know as enthusiasts of the Harry Potter books. Only while the series remains incomplete, can discussion, debate and conjecture about the characters, their lives and the fate of the Wizarding World be so wide ranging. Fans and academics will be discussing the completed text for generations to come, but we have just the next few years when we will be able to put our heads together and talk `what if' into the wee small hours.
    5) Anything, really, but if I had to choose it would be The Marauders. I find their gradual disintegration from a group of trusted friends through to Peter's eventual betrayal of James and his family fascinating.
• Treasurer, Pip
  • Despite being saddled with the same nickname as a Dickens character, Pip is female and has never been an apprentice blacksmith. She has tried varying the nickname by using Pip! Squeak and Bluesqueak, but whichever one she uses, everyone always confuses her with someone else. So whoever you're thinking of, she's the other one. OK?
    1) 'Payment will be sent within 30 days of receipt of invoice.'
    2) Someone who could explain how to eat asparagus. Apparently there's a special technique?
    3) Well, if you can go backwards in time then it must (according to current theory) be possible to go faster than the speed of light. So I'd go backwards. But set it up as an observable experiment, and only go back about half an hour. And then watch physicists and engineers go mad trying to work out faster-than-light travel.
    4) One of my friends suggested that a UK Harry Potter conference was a
    great idea, and I agreed. She then said, 'well, I'm trying to organize one, would you like to help?'. After some thought I decided that having a UK conference *was* a great idea and that I would like to help. Besides, I want to play quidditch. And wizard chess. And stay up to 2am talking about Harry Potter. And meet all the people I only know from online. And ... oh, I have to stop now?
    5) Religious symbolism in HP. Spying in the Potterverse (with special reference to Snape's acting ability). Corruption and the Wizarding World. Oh, and Why Do Readers Find Snape So Sexy? (but I think that's a post watershed topic. The seminar will be held in the bar).
• Marketing Officer, John R. Wilson
  • From Where • Email: optional
    What is your quest? What is your favorite color? What... is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow?
    1) laugh?
    2) dinner party?
    3) timeturner
    4) Accio and why?
    5) Debate
• Co-Programming Officer, Catherine Coleman
  • Ms. Coleman (32) used her arts degree to great effect when working in medical research, banking, technical writing and HR (amongst other things) before deciding to go off and study law. She has recently moved from London to Norfolk and is taking some time off before starting a training contract. Catherine, who first became interested in the Harry Potter series prior to the publication of the Prisoner of Azkaban, stumbled upon HPforGrownups in early 2001, and has been involved in the
    online fandom ever since.
    1) Children, my husband (particularly when he knows I don't want to), then anything from Jane Austen to Joss Whedon. I will add, however, that I masochistically love reading things which make me laugh and cry at the same time. JKR did bathos superbly with Neville and Gilderoy Lockhart which had exactly that effect.
    2) Currently, George Michael, because he has been so marvelously indiscreet recently and I'm sure he'd be fun.
    3) Hmm. Well, it wouldn't work very well, would it? If we are following JKR's rules on time travel, it would mean that I would be coexisting with, rather than replacing, my previous self - and I'm pretty sure that most people would agree that one of me is enough! However, if I could pop back to certain points at will, I'd spend time snapping up first/firsts of PS and COS-and attend a few signings as well.
    4) I got involved through encouraging Ali when she originally had the idea, and then thought I should put my money where my mouth is. Why? Well, not many things have the capacity to bring so many different people together in the way Harry Potter has, and holding a conference in the UK seems like a natural progression of what many of us have been doing online for years.
    5) I don't think there is anything out there which doesn't appeal to me in some way, but I love studying the characters - their background histories, their motivations, their strengths and flaws - and their various relationships. I am fascinated by how Sirius' generation imploded, including Snape, and could quite happily defend Harry for hours
• Co-Programming Officer, Sheryll
  • Sheryll Townsend is 40-something theatre employee whose love affair with all things HP started just before the release of GOF. She passed her HP obsession on to her daughter and nephew by hauling them out of school and taking them to JKR's reading in Toronto that same year. She's a long-time LOON, member of the HPFGU Admin team, Chair of Convention Alley and has a few years of festival and event planning.
    1) Just about anything, I'm easily amused.
    2) Alan Rickman. Was there really any doubt as to who I'd pick?
    3) I don't think I'd use it. I wouldn't be the person I am today without living through everything I've survived so far. And I'd prefer to take the future a day at a time.
    4) I *think* I volunteered for this. :) I think the HP fandom has an incredible mix of people and truly believe we will all enjoy each other's company in person as much as we do online. The more varied the locations of HP events, the more chance that more of us will meet and share our love of all things HP.
    5) Any thing Snape! There's no such thing as too much Snape.
• Volunteers Officer, Accio Webmaster, Tim Regan
  • Dr. Regan is a 38 year old researcher, currently consulting with Microsoft Research in Cambridge. His academic areas of interest include online 3D worlds, social computing, and mobile entertainment. Tim started posting on Potter related sites early in 2002 (as Dumbledad), and is working on a statistical analysis of the Potter texts.
    1) I'm a jovial type and can laugh at most things - especially myself!
    2) The Marquis De Sade would probably be a mine of entertaining and mind-expanding anecdotes. But if he was tied up I'd settle for anyone whose achievements spanned multiple disciplines and whose enthusiasm was infectious; how about the poet and gardener Alice Oswald?
    3) No chance, there are too many people I care about here and now.
    4) There is something about the quality and popularity of the Harry Potter books that has resulted in a huge fan-base of interesting and interested adults. I wanted to help organize something would bring all that enthusiasm and knowledge together.
    5) Gosh, all of it is fascinating. I'd be particularly interested in anything about the fan community itself, since studying online communities is part of my area of academic expertise. Anything that tries to tease out exactly what it is about these books that makes them special would also be particularly interesting for me.
• Gaming Officer, Chris M. Dickson
  • Labyrinth Games and MSO Worldwide
    Middlesbrough, Great Britain; chris@dickson.demon.co.uk
    Chris Dickson, 28, is self-employed; he mangles web pages and writes to make a living from home in Middlesbrough. He is interested in all sorts of games, particularly obscure ones which cross boundaries and break rules. He has been part of the UK team in the World Puzzle Championships in the USA and the Czech Republic and has a published puzzle book to his credit.
    1) The staggeringly filthy spoof version of Hansard at www.martian.fm/hansard.htm; same six jokes almost every week, but with a slightly different topical spin each time. Just like real politics!
    2) Could it be Nelson Mandela? Mike Myers? Roger Black? Dean Kamen? Floella Benjamin? Tim Vine? All of the above at a five-dimensional party? No, it would be my wonderful girlfriend Meg, who never ceases to amaze. (And Nelson on the other side.)
    3) Let's relive getting to know my girlfriend. If I get it wrong and end up "Groundhog Day"-ing myself to be trapped in one particular bubble of time then that's a price that just has to be paid.
    4) I ran a version of Quidditch at the Nimbus-2003 event in Orlando, Florida, USA; which was a laugh and a half and resulted in me getting a name-check in the Daily Telegraph; the version at Accio represents a refinement. Sadly no flying broomsticks yet, but nearly everything else.
    5) I'd like to compare the fandom - not the canon, but what people did with it and how they interacted - before and after the launch of book five, and discuss what we can expect to happen with regard to the launches of books six and seven.
• Security Officer, Richard
  • From Where • Email: optional
    What is your quest? What is your favorite color? What... is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow?
    1) laugh?
    2) dinner party?
    3) timeturner
    4) Accio and why?
    5) Debate

Volunteers & Assistance

• Art Director, Mary E. Gober
  • Professional Webmaster of MissMaryPotter.com, LilRedGEO.com, and assisting www.Accio.org.uk
    Washington, DC—USA • Email: accio@lilredgeo.com
    I am a professional Graphic Designer who designed the cover of the Nimbus-2003 conference program. Most people in the HP world know me as MissMaryPotter and my friends know that I am a obsessively huge Harry Potter fan with a cat named Dumbledore, a licence plate that says 1 Seeker, and HP collection of the obscure and rare kind. My favorite characters is Remus Lupin, favorite book is Prisoner of Azkaban, and my house loyalties are to Gryffindor!!!!
    1) "Doorknob" for some reason I think it's funny when someone says it randomly. But pretty much anything, if you could tell I'm easily amused. My sense humor is generally best used in my designs...just look at the postcards. Other than that I'm pretty corny.
    2) Tom Welling (WB TV showSmallville), because he's so fine (even though he's married, grrr) and I'd like to ask him about his views on his character Clark Kent and what he does to prepare and on the other side J.K. Rowling of course for obvious reasons.
    3) Iye yey yie! Toughy, um I'd go back, to my 21st year, and change a few things I did...make better choices, kiss better people, drink better drinks.
    4) I have no idea.. I must of linked to it from somewhere, while drinking excessive amounts of Red Bull, and took notice; I then offered my services, talents, skills, and enthusiasm; and they took me in and let me play freely (to an extent), and now I'm here. Plus, I like British folk, they say neat things. :D
    5) Oh my, um my strange theory about Dumbledore being in or around the Mirror of Erised, in the last enchanted chamber in Year 1; and other things we may have missed.
• Volunteer, Serena Culfeather
  • I have four jobs-I work as a gardener, I'm a merchandiser in a local supermarket, I caretake a holiday flat, I teach French and Italian to adults and have recently done some proofreading ( sorry, that was five!). In what is left of my time I read(was a bookseller so addicted to books), I sketch (badly), enjoy being outdoors and my most recent obsession is my LiveJournal. I'm usually called Serena or Sarah (prefer the former), I'm 38 and am obsessed by all things Harry Potter.
    1) Lots of things make me laugh - mostly myself though,it keeps me sane
    2) Normally prefer a chat and a round of drinks to dinner parties. However, people I'd attend just to be near would have to be Alan Rickman, Colin Firth, Sean Bean and Jason Isaacs (in that order) but I'd probably just stare hopelessly so for a good chat I'd really like to meet Billy Connolly or Robbie Coltrane(I love their sense of humour)or my online friend pauraque who is always so interesting.
    3) I'd probably decline, not sure about timeturning but if I *had* to, I'd go back; going forward I might miss something fun!
    4) Accio was mentioned on someone's LiveJournal. I got into the volunteer section first and excitement took over! I really want to meet other adult Harry Potter fans because all the 'real' people I know think I'm mad!
    5) Anything really but I'm particularly interested in Snape, Death Eaters and all things Slytherin. Also keen to hear more of the chess theories going about.
• Web Monkey, Tim Hewison
  • Tim is Ali's long-suffering husband. He is a research scientist for the Met Office and part-time web monkey.
    
    1) Bottom
    2) Ali!
    3) I wouldn't change the course of time even if I could, any more than I would change the weather (deliberately). Both could be dangerous, and have unforseen consequences.
    4) Love!
    5) I would like to see an installment of Lego creations reproducing scenes from the stories. (Well you asked!)

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