Henry Vanderbilt has the list of speakers up. With the number he has, it’s going to be hard to come up with a schedule. It really needs two tracks, given the time available, but that would entirely change the flavor of the conference. I’m not sure what he wants me to talk about, but likely it will be my ongoing efforts to get Republicans and conservatives to act like it when it comes to space policy.
Now that this stuff is finally taking off (both figuratively and literally,with real hardware), the industry may be outgrowing the conference. I’m sure that Henry can’t be unhappy about that, though it may mean big changes in the future.
Have faith. Your conference staff are skilled professionals. (Don’t try this at home, kids! )
Seriously, we have about 21 hours of single-track program time over 2 1/2 days. 48 lines in the current speakers/talks listing gives a raw average of 26 minutes each. The key is, a number of the speakers listed are on multi-person panels, and a number of others are giving relatively brief, 10 to 15 minute talks. It’ll be long days and briskly paced (but with plenty of breaks) but it will all fit with sufficient time for speakers to hit their essential points.
It ought to once again be a pretty good conference. What I always tell people is, it’s the speakers who make a conference, and we’ve clearly got a damn fine bunch of speakers. But lest anyone worry, there’s nobody on the staff who hasn’t been doing this for years – in my case, 19 years. (Where does the time go?…)
no it does not need two tracks- we would have to miss half the program. Trust Henry