When I was at the Electronic Imaging Conference in San Francisco in February there was a man with a parrot attending. He walked around with it and brought a cage to the conference rooms when he was attending. On the last day of the conference, I was near the back of a room where a speaker was being introduced. The parrot said ‘Hello!’ and it resonated. Everyone turned around for a second then the session continued.

Leaving the room later, I passed the parrot in his cage (he had been taken there by his owner). I talked to the parrot to see if I could record it, but no luck. I just got a squawk.

Later I imagined a BBC radio story, The Parrot at the Conference (audio).