2019 SEPA – MAPS Conference – Sponsor Information

Sponsor Registration Information

Thank you so much for your support of this conference! We are immensely grateful not only for your financial support but also for the expertise you provide and share with delegates. Your presence enriches these professional meetings in so many ways and we are excited to have you join us. We hope that these sponsorship levels will prove to be mutually beneficial, such that your organization is able to get both the exposure and valuable delegate interaction time you seek.

This year we are taking a quality over quantity approach. Exhibit hall time will be concentrated on Wednesday and Thursday, the first and second full days of the conference. The majority of that time will be dedicated to sponsors, without concurrent sessions or meetings. The exhibit hall will not be open during the last full day, Friday, in order to allow sponsors to attend paper sessions, meet privately with delegates, or leave early if necessary. Of course we very much hope you will stay for the entirety of the conference! Please note that this means tear down will need to be done Thursday night and be completed by Friday morning.

The exhibit hall will be closed during meals so that no one will need to remain behind to tend to your organization’s space.

Sponsor Lunch

All sponsors will have the opportunity to introduce themselves at the Sponsor Lunch, which will be the first lunch of the conference on Wednesday, June 5th.

If you wish to participate, please be prepared by designating one person to represent your organization when called. Due to the expected number of sponsors, there will be a time limit of 1 minute. This time is to be used to introduce yourself and to summarize what services or products you provide. The order will be determined according to the following:

1. Sponsorship level, starting from the highest to the lowest
2. For sponsors coming in at the same level, the order in which those sponsors registered will be used

Exhibit Hall

Please see the exhibit hall layout. Each block of space is 8×8 feet and comes with a 6-ft table and two chairs. Each circular space will count as 2 blocks, does not come with a table and is reserved for inflatables/demo domes only. If you would like to bring a dome larger than 16 feet in diameter, please contact the conference host to see if this is possible. Additional charges would apply and will be determined based on the amount of extra space that would be taken. The ceiling height is 16 feet.

When registering, please choose three spaces, ranked from in order of preference. Assignments will be made on a first-come first-serve basis. While we cannot guarantee that preferences will be met, every attempt will be made to do so.

Depending on the number of sponsoring organizations attending, it may become necessary to adjust the layout of the room in order to accommodate everyone. In that event we will try to preserve preferences as best we can.

Sponsors may set up starting at 8:00am on Tuesday, June 4th. The exhibit hall will be open during published times and will be closed during most paper sessions and during meals.

The trade off with having sponsor time focused on two days is that the exhibit hall will need to be cleared by Friday morning. This means tear down will necessarily be Thursday evening. Currently Thursday’s dome session is expected to end around 10:00pm, which is the start of the Constellation Shootout. Any equipment in the planetarium can be removed at a later time and is by arrangement. Friday will start a little bit later in the day as well.

Dome Sessions

BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina Planetarium

Time in the BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina Planetarium at the State Museum is limited. As such, only those presentations that need to use the dome will be scheduled in it.

The planetarium is a tilted (18-degree), 55-foot diameter, NanoSeam dome with 145 unidirectional seats and 5 wheelchair-accessible spots. It is fully digital and uses a dual projector 4K Digistar 5 system. A full color SkyLase laser projector sits in a pit in the center of the theater and uses an HD24 playback system. A schematic of the inside of the theater and console area can be provided upon request.

Content can be provided as 4K slices or as a set of 4K dome masters in png or jpg format on a hard drive. Please clearly label your drive with your organization name and contact info. We highly recommend including a simple text (README) file containing this information in case any labels on the outside of the drive fall off. Send to:

We will send an email acknowledging receipt of your drive. If you do not hear from us within a week of sending it, please contact Liz at liz.klimek@scmuseum.org or 803.898.4985.

We will be happy to slice content for our system free of charge provided the files arrive by May 6th. After that date we can’t guarantee that content will be encoded in time for the conference, so you may have to have another organization do it, which may involve a charge. All content must be submitted no later than May 24th.

Laser content must be in HD24 or Pangolin Beyond format. Please let the conference host know which format your content will be in as soon as you can, and files must be submitted no later than May 24th.

Please contact the conference host to arrange for setup/test time in the dome. The planetarium will be running normal public shows during the day throughout the week of the conference. This means setup and tear down time will either have to be early in the morning or in the evening. Times can be arranged ahead of the conference, starting as early as Sunday June 2nd.

Show Dome

In order to provide more opportunities for producers to showcase their content and to prevent evening dome sessions from going too late into the evening, a 16-foot inflatable dome will be set up in the exhibit hall. Content will be projected using a Warped-Media mirror system provided by Ash Enterprises. Thirty-minute time blocks are available for $100 each, with a maximum of 2 blocks per organization. Time block availability is limited and will be filled on a first-come, first-serve basis. A show schedule will be published in the conference program and displayed prominently outside the dome.

Show dome content must be provided as a 2K, mp4 video file. Please send the file to Jack Dunn (jdunn@spacelaser.com) no later than May 24th. If you need to use a different file format, please contact Jack to coordinate.

Conference-Related Activities

Pre-Conference Mini-LIPS

Mini-LIPS will be held on Tuesday, June 4th from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm at the conference hotel. It is being organized and run by Karrie Berglund. This all-day workshop will provide SEPA-MAPS attendees a sense of what happens at the annual Live Interactive Planetarium Symposium (LIPS). LIPS is a multi-day gathering that focuses on all facets of live programming: presentation skills; sample activities for different ages; etc. Mini-LIPS is open to anyone registered to attend SEPA-MAPS. As with the full LIPS, ideas and content presented at the Mini-LIPS are intended to apply to everyone who does live shows, no matter whether those shows are in a portable dome or fixed, with a digital system or starball.

Post-Conference Music Performance

Astronomical Organ Music
June 8, 2:00-2:45pm
Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, 1100 Sumter St.

Join SCSM Observatory Manager Matthew Whitehouse for a concert of astronomically-inspired organ music. Matthew will be sharing his own compositions, as well as a piece by the “Father of Modern Astronomy” William Herschel. Trinity Cathedral is a beautiful space with a spectacular pipe organ, and you won’t want to miss this out-of-this-world musical event.

There is no charge to attend this performance. Transportation options will be determined based on the number of people who sign up and will be presented during the conference.