ICMI16 update: New speakers, an MC, and why you need to pre-register by 22:00 GMT Sunday, 6 December

We have already announced many of the confirmed speakers at ICMI16, in addition to Erin Pizzey, who’ll be giving the keynote speech, ‘Intergenerational family violence v the big lie’. In surname alphabetical order:

1. Paul Apreda, Families Need Fathers (Both Parents Matter) Cymru – ‘The state’s assaults on fathers’
2. Janet Bloomfield (Judgy Bitch) – ‘How feminism infantilizes women’
3. Mike Buchanan, party leader, J4MB – ‘The political war on men and boys’
4. Paul Elam, Founder and publisher, A Voice for Men – ‘Gynocentrism – the root of feminism’
5. Dean Esmay, National Coalition for Men (NCFM) – ‘Men Going Their Own Way, and the new Renaissance’
6. Janice Fiamengo, Professor, Department of English, Ottawa University – ‘How Feminism is Destroying Higher Education’
7. Sage Gerard, Collegiate Activism Director, AVfM Operations LLC – ‘How to bring men’s rights to campus’
8. Tim Hammond, independent researcher – ‘Exploring the aftermath of male circumcision: Findings from the 2012 Global Survey of Infant Circumcision’
9. Anil Kumar, Save Indian Family Foundation – ‘Organizational models that made the difference: Success stories in India’
10. Herbert Purdy, anti-feminist blogger – ‘Their Angry Creed’ (the title of his forthcoming book)
11. Karen Straughan (GirlWritesWhat) – ‘Toxic Femininity’
12. Lucian Valsan, European News Director, AVfM Operations LLC – ‘The status of men in continental Europe: ideology, legislation and activism’
13. Milo Yiannopoulos, Associate Editor, Breitbart.com – ‘How to beat feminists in debates’

I am delighted to announce the MC and four more speakers at ICMI… drum roll, please…

Master of Ceremonies – Terrence Popp, Redonkulas, surely the funniest war hero on the planet. We can expect the conference to run with military precision, and have some laughs at the same time. New speakers:

1. Greg Canning, Australian doctor and MHRA – ‘The health gender gap’
2. Martin Daubney, a British writer on gender issues – talk title TBA.
3. Guttorm Grundt, Norwegian MHRA – ‘Discrimination against men and fathers in Norway, and MannForum’s strategy and actions for gender equality in practice’
4. Josh O’Brien, 19-year-old politics student and vlogger – talk title TBA
5. Thomas Walter, German MHRA, member of MANNdat – talk title TBA

Also at the conference, but not speaking, will be the popular 18-year-old British student vlogger David Sherratt, Spinosaurus Kin, as well as Carl Benjamin, the man behind the Sargon of Akkad website.

With Erin Pizzey, that’s 19 speakers at ICMI16. If you want to be sure of attending ICMI16, you’ll need to pre-register, and the dealine for doing so is 22:00 GMT on Sunday, three days’ time. You won’t be making a legal commitment to later buy a ticket (£225 – £265, less the pre-registration fee), and we’ll make a full refund if:

• the conference is cancelled
• the scope of the conference is markedly smaller than currently envisaged

As someone who’s pre-registered, you’ll have a few weeks to pay for your full ticket (or pay the first of four monthly instalments, at no additional cost), before the general public is given the chance to buy tickets. We’re planning to book a venue that will hold not many more people than have pre-registered, because venue costs rise sharply with delegate numbers. The potential strategy of booking larger venues in the hope of attracting many more additional delegates is too risky. In plain English:

If you want to be sure of attending ICMI16, you have only three days left to pre-register.

You can pre-register (£22) here.

I must repeat again that you should not make any travel or accommodation commitments until and unless we announce that the conference is definitely going ahead, which will be after we’ve signed a contract with a venue. For one thing, it may be that the dates of the conference will change, although we’ll do all in our power to minimise the risk of that happening.

Once we’ve settled on the venue, we’ll be embarking on research to track down affordable local accommodation, to keep your bills down.

I hope to meet many of you at the conference. It’s going to be something special…