I’m going to be attending two conferences this year, maybe three if dates line up correctly.
First up is The Amazing Meeting 7 (TAM7) organized by the James Randi Educational Foundation. Through The Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe Podcast, I came to realize how great of a meeting this was. With the potential to meet Penn & Teller, James Randi, Phil Plait, Adam Savage, as well as many other distinguished people, I made it a goal to attend this year. I finally booked my tickets about a month ago. TAM is from July 9 through 12 in Las Vegas.
Next, I found the Atheist Alliance International Convention with Richard Dawkins and Bill Maher headlining, and many other noted speakers including people I admire such as Jerry Coyne and Eugene Scott. I’m extremely excited about this conference and the prospect of potentially being able to see Dawkins speak in person. This conference is held in Los Angeles from October 2 through 4.
Lastly is the Texas Freethought Convention which is still being organized. If the date is the same as last year, I unfortunately will most likely be out of town. However, if I’m in town, I’ll definitely be there.
For the past few months I’ve been monitoring for various speakers that I would love to see. The top of my list includes Dawkins, Hitchens, and Ehrman. It’s incredibly hard to find a schedule for Hitchens — I wish the man would put together a simple website. Hell, I would volunteer to post and host an official website with a calendar of events.
To illicit some feedback, I have a few questions for the few readers I get:
- Are you attending any conventions this year, especially the ones above?
- Who in the atheist/skeptic/freethought movements are you most interested in hearing speak?
Hopefully through these conferences I’ll be able to put a face to many of the bloggers I’ve come to read and appreciate, as well as possibly meet some of the more influential public figures like Dawkins and Hitchens.
Tags: atheism, science, skepticism
