“Engaging Audiences of all Ages”
When: June 8-9, 2017
Host: Treworgy Planetarium, Mystic Seaport Museum
Contact: Brian Koehler, Planetarium Supervisor, Brian.koehler@mysticseaport.org
The staff and volunteers of the Treworgy Planetarium at Mystic Seaport would like to invite all members of the Middle Atlantic Planetarium Society to a Regional Meeting here in Mystic from June 8-9, 2017. The meeting will commence at noon on Thursday and will adjourn at approximately 4:30 PM on Friday.
The theme of our Regional Meeting is “Engaging Audiences of All Ages”. In the planetarium field, we all see a wide variety of visitors come through our doors – from infants and toddlers, to elementary and middle school students, to high schoolers and college students, to adults and senior citizens. Each demographic brings its own challenges but presents its own unique opportunities. Workshops, panels, and talks at our meeting will focus on presentation styles, special accommodations, behavior management techniques, and general programming ideas for each of these groups – and of course, the inevitable scenario where two or more of these demographics combine into one audience!
Sessions will occur either in classroom spaces or inside our Planetarium Theater, whose 30-foot dome contains a Spitz A3P optical-mechanical star projector, which is accompanied by two digital media (non-fulldome) projectors for the display of slides and images on the dome’s surface.
Weather permitting, Thursday night will be punctuated by an evening gathering at one of our local observatories, for a telescope viewing session of the night sky as it appears here in New England.
A list of the wide variety of area hotels will be provided to those who seek overnight accommodations for June 8th.
A registration fee of $40 per person will help to cover lunch on both days of the meeting, coffee/tea/drinks throughout the two days, and any materials, supplies, and equipment needed for the various workshop sessions.