NARCON 2021

[BEC]

Virtual conferences (NARCON, CES, etc.) definitely rule.

Not only can people with time constraints and family/life obligations still attend, but one can go back and view all concurrently held break-out sessions and not miss something interesting! It's always a nightmare to prioritize which of the break-out sessions one must miss at major conferences.
And then, if you forgot something cool, you can go back and re-stream the video feed of the presentation and refresh your memory!

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P.S.: There are also definite downsides - lack of socialization and personal relationship building are the obvious limitations.
P.P.S.: Perhaps, once the pandemic is under control, we can combine the best of both worlds and video stream all the future in-person conferences!?

Yeah, this conversation is literally still underway this moment in the after-NARCON zoom social still underway.

 

[Ronz Rocketz]

P.P.S.: Perhaps, once the pandemic is under control, we can combine the best of both worlds and video stream all the future in-person conferences!?

Someone in the Board meeting mentioned that a hybrid conference can be problematic because most hotels assess a penalty if a certain number of rooms are not booked as attendees decide to stay home instead. However with organizations deciding to move toward virtual conferences, hotels will need to reassess their agreements if they want to rent their ballrooms.

 

[DrewW]

The attendance for this virtual NARCON was 537 versus about 100 to 200 for a typical live NARCON. Sounds like a real success and good advertisement for NAR.

hopefully they can figure out how to do some sort of hybrid for the future.

 

[Peartree]

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Virtual conferences (NARCON, CES, etc.) definitely rule.

Not only can people with time constraints and family/life obligations still attend, but one can go back and view all concurrently held break-out sessions and not miss something interesting! It's always a nightmare to prioritize which of the break-out sessions one must miss at major conferences.
And then, if you forgot something cool, you can go back and re-stream the video feed of the presentation and refresh your memory!

P.S.: There are also definite downsides - lack of socialization and personal relationship building are the obvious limitations.
P.P.S.: Perhaps, once the pandemic is under control, we can combine the best of both worlds and video stream all the future in-person conferences!?

One of the things that is being discussed in many places (and obviously, since I work in a church, it is a major subject of conversation in the church), that once the pandemic is over, many things will never return to "normal" as it was a year ago. Our committees that have members that live many hours apart have found a huge benefit in being "forced" to have Zoom meetings. A one hour meeting takes one hour, not one hour, plus six hours or travel time. Even for local church meetings, there's no need to drag everyone into church for a ten minute discussion. Sunday mornings, post-pandemic, are almost certain to continue online in some form for people who are ill, shut-in, snowed in, busy, working, or moved out of town. Having seen that 500+ people will attend NARCON online will definitely inform future organizers, post-pandemic, that in addition to in-person attendance, there is revenue left on the table if they don't offer an online component, even at a small and nearly irresistible fee. 500 attendees at $10 each is still and extra $5k to the event organizers.

 

[Nytrunner]

If I recall the money numbers, the cost for the conference hosting was ~500$ a day (2000 total for logistics day and the conference)

At 25 a person for attendance and 530 participants, that should have more than covered the costs and got some into the NAR coffers. Of course some did family tickets and the like so its not a direct multiplication, but still a good turnout in my opinion

 

[RoyAtl]

My only regret is that I wasn't able to view the manufacturers forum live. I would have loved to ask Bill Stine about the Orbital Transport that they are working on it. Last year, eRockets said that they were working on an OT upscale (but I couldn't quite figure out the size). Is eRockets still working on this, or did they let Estes run with it. If both Estes and eRockets are going ahead with OT models, will they be different in size or design?

The Semroc OT would probably be BT-60, as they were the suppliers of parts for the Hawks Hobby OT when it was available. The Estes upscale is probably going to be BT55, based on their Mars Snooper (btw, Hawks also had a Mars Snooper which was BT60).

 

[James Duffy]

It appears that the vNARCON content has started appearing on the NAR YouTube page. See: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCscXnrq6Hi9gT6ZMPw1mUeA

James