…and yet, across the gulf of space, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded our planet with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us.

War of the Worlds, H.G. Wells 1898

A war is coming. A war of intellect and talking and stuff, and everyone’s invited to pick up a premise and start shooting. On the 8th of December, 12 people all aged under 30 will gather at the British Library, where they’ll have a scant 15 minutes each to talk about how to save advertising. I’m gonna speak there, and I’ve already got little butterflies hatching in my stomach.

But that’s not the point. Skip everything else and read this bit.

On the day, there will be an open mic section for people aged 25 and under. In this, you’ll have just three minutes to speak on the theme “I believe”. In front of lots of incredibly smart people. It would be no exaggeration to say that doing exactly this sort of thing was how I got into advertising in 2009. If you’re up to it, this could be your break. If you’re not, do it anyway and learn something.

How to get in: entrants are asked to send a 300 word (max! I think your idea should be powerful enough to get into 150) essay on what you’d talk about, to wotw@huffingtonpost.com. Here’s the catch: the deadline is end of tomorrow. Just sit down with a cup of tea and bust it out, I know you can.

More deets here. It would be a very very good thing to do.