[AR] Re: Space Access Symposium
- From: Henry Vanderbilt <hvanderbilt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 14 Jan 2020 13:40:11 -0700
On 1/13/2020 8:56 PM, willsrw wrote:
Hi
Does anyone have insight as to whether or not there will be a Space
Access Symposium this year? Last year's Symposium was a great start.
Thanks,
Rick Will
I might have some insight here. Ahem. (And yeah, it's getting past
time I shared what's going on with the conference.)
The short version: Not this April, alas. A Space Access right after
Labor Day is not impossible, but our current planning baseline is April '21.
Some background for the long version...
Agreed, last spring's Bay Area Space Access conference was
programmatically very useful. Putting a Space Access together has a way
of clarifying what the current priorities are, this one after a couple
years hiatus even more so. (More on what came out of that soon.)
Logistically speaking, doing the conference out-of-area ended up a wash
- the mix of issues straining our resources to the max changed, the net
strain alas did not. The good news: It didn't kill me - apparently I'm
getting somewhat healthier again finally.
Fiscally speaking, the Bay Area was, well, expensive. We hoped for a
big attendance bump there, we got a modest one, we just about broke
even. Far better than losing a big chunk - many thanks to everybody who
worked their hearts out helping keep things close - but not sustainable.
Net of the above: There will be more Space Access conferences. It's
still useful - it covers ground not really systematically addressed
anywhere else we're aware of. And it should be doable sustainably,
though that's going to take some more work.
We will do the next one in Phoenix. The logistics are easier and the
prices are lower.
We will not, alas, do the next Space Access this April. We were looking
into that, ran into logistical difficulties, had to punt.
We probably won't do it on an annual basis going forward either. Every
year-and-a-half to two years looks like a better interval, both to ease
the logistics, and to allow enough interesting new thinking to
accumulate so each conference has a higher cool-new-ideas to
same-old-stuff ratio.
April of next year is our current baseline. Later this year, Labor Day
or shortly after, is still possible, but at this point low-probability.
RE both "later this year" and some long-term thoughts on possibly going
to a spring-fall schedule at 18 month intervals, an informal survey
question: How many would (or absolutely would not) consider coming to
Phoenixsomewhat past the peak of the alien-desert-planet /hot/ part of
the summer here for this thing - possibly Labor Day weekend, possibly a
week or two after, historical average ~100F midafternoon highs, ~80F
overnight lows - but to a really nice resort hotel in a really nice
many-restaurants-walkable touristy neighborhood at a very tolerable price?
I ask because end of summer is slack season for space conferences in
general - once you hit October the calendar is jammed - and late summer
is also low-cost season for conference sites here. If you've got some
heat tolerance and are willing to be seen in public in shorts, hawaiian
shirt, and a wide-brimmed hat (or in a suit by the pool) outdoors is
still livable. And even if not, this town is set up so you can spend
three days here and never be outside of air-conditioned spaces for more
than thirty seconds at a time.
Henry
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