Space

National Space Symposium

26 Comments

Boy, they just don’t seem to be able to catch a break. First, the sequester is preventing some big-name speakers from attending (and probably attendees as well), and now there’s four to eight inches of snow forecast for Tuesday. Guess I’d better pack some winter gear for my trip tomorrow.

26 thoughts on “National Space Symposium”

  1. Safe travels.

    That is why I expect the Mars conference is in Washington, so no one needs to travel, or are able to write it off as travel to headquarters.

  2. I sure hope this lasts until July. Last year’s NewSpace conference was 90% NASA speakers. To me, that’s just a tad backward.

    Thankfully, there’s always the business plan competition which is exactly what NewSpace should be about.

    1. Sounds about right to me. The SFF gets 90% of its funding from NASA, so why shouldn’t they get the face time?

      Business plan competition? You mean the one that’s run by an associate of Walt Anderson and sponsored by Ares I? I’d say that shows just what’s wrong with “New” Space.

          1. Ya, I am just curious at what Edward is going on about. It didn’t look like some fraudulent organization like he is alleging.

            Also, old space encouraging and working with new space doesn’t really seem like a problem.

  4. Heh. Come to Space Access instead. We cost only a fraction of the Broadmoor government-space fest, most of our speakers don’t have government funding to sequester in the first place, AND we’re in Phoenix, where the main weather question this week is what SPF to slather on by the pool.

    There’s also a good chance that our discussions will end up being far more relevant to the nation’s future in space, but that’s just my opinion…

    3. By the way, Henry, my current schedule is that I won’t be there until Thursday evening (i.e., night, leaving downtown LA about 15:30). I haven’t checked the latest update, but I assume that’s not a problem? I still have two engagements on Saturday?

      1. What?! Didn’t you see the latest schedule? We have you on at 9 am Thursday.

        I mean, you’ve said that’s your favorite time of day…

        Just kidding. Still on for Saturday.

  5. NSS is being held at a golf resort, during an April blizzard. NSRC is being held at a ski resort in June. Seems like the organizers got it backwards. 🙂

    Don’t forget to pack your snowshoes.

    1. Actually, there’s a reason for that – conference venues tend to be a lot cheaper outside the local peak tourist season. It’s why Space Access tends to be a week or two after baseball Spring Training ends, for instance – that’s a big deal in Arizona, hotel rates drop considerably once it’s over.

      Some of us then pass on these savings to the attendees, some, well, not so much.

      1. That’s a joke, I say, that’s a joke, son…

        Half of it is, anyway. While Alan Stern may be taking advantage of off-season rates, the National Space Symposium seems to use golf as a selling point.

        1. Yeah, I caught the smiley, but it was a chance to explain a basic point of conference economics. Conferences that are trying to save money go for local off-seasons. Like when Space Frontier Foundation used to do theirs in Las Vegas in July.

          Conferences that assume you’re traveling on someone else’s dime and cost is no object sometimes just get unlucky with their weather… Fiscal and otherwise. And yeah, I’ve never seen much sign the National Space Symposium is worried about saving anyone money.

          1. The problem with holding a convention in Vegas is that people go there to “do Vegas” rather than doing the conference.

            When SFF held its conferences there, they had hundreds show up for the opening session and dozens for each session after that. The rest were hitting the casinos.

          2. Good point about not picking a conference venue that’s potentially more interesting than your conference! Yeah, I had some problems with that last one of those I was at – had to cover a morning’s sessions for a co-worker who’d been out partying in Vegas strip clubs till dawn. I wasn’t even supposed to be working that one.

          3. “Conferences that assume you’re traveling on someone else’s dime and cost is no object….”

            Evidently, if the conference attendee is paid by a NASA contract (not a grant) then those days of cost is no object are over. There was a 66% reduction in the number of NASA contract types that were allowed to attend a calibration conference a couple of weeks ago.

            Sequester was blamed.

          4. Gregg, you wrote:

            Sequester was blamed.

            Henry Vanderbilt wrote:

            sometimes just get unlucky with their weather… Fiscal and otherwise

            I find this discussion of the economics of conferences to be quite interesting. Perhaps we ought to hold some conferences to study this matter in greater detail – on somebody else’s dime, of course.

  6. The local hearsay is, snow will be minor and more to the north. Broadmoor is in the south part of town. (I am not a meteorologist but I play blah blah.)

    We get passes every year, but’s it’s such a stuffed-shirt group hug that it’s just not worth it to blow several hours of work.

  7. If whims in Washington and a little bit of snow will stop this thing, then maybe we should put someone in charge who can overcome minor hurdles.

  8. I did the Cyber 1.3 event yesterday and got to peek into the exhibit hall. Looks like the vendors showed up in force. Yes the snow is coming down off and on, but is primarily horizontal with 50+ mph wind gusts. Most of the schools are closed today. The roads are still in decent condition so I don’t expect much impact to the symposium, just miserably bitter temperatures. Springtime in the Rockies, you gotta love it.

    As for the Cyber event, I covered for a sick co-worker. He owes me big time. There’s 8 hours out of my life I’d love to have back. Hope the space sessions are better.

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