Dear MAPS Member,
The staff of the Jet Blue Sky Theater Planetarium at The Cradle of Aviation would like to invite you to join us from April 22 – 25, 2020 for the MAPS 2020 conference. The gathering, as always, is a great time for MAPS Members to re-connect, brainstorm ideas for education programming, and share with each other all of the wonderful things that we are doing at our home planetariums!
The Cradle is excited to, once again, be hosting the annual MAPS conference. Long Island has played an integral part in air and space exploration, from the first trans-Atlantic flight to the Apollo Lunar Modules. It is our mission to preserve our history in order to inspire future generations. During the conference, we hope that you are able to explore our collections and/or attend the Apollo 13 50th Anniversary celebration on April 23rd.
The theme of this year’s conference is “Reaching Beyond the Stars”. Planetariums are known for showing people the farthest reaches of the universe. Recently our scope has been growing to incorporate everything from what is too big and too far to what is too small or too slow. We hope that this theme encourages workshops, lessons, papers, posters, and panels that reflect the various topics and programs seen in planetariums. We hope that, in addition to attending our conference, you will consider submitting a
proposal to present a talk, lesson, workshop, poster, or panel discussion.
Continuing a long-standing MAPS tradition, our annual banquet will be highlighted by the Margaret Noble Address. This year’s address will be given by Michael McConville from Spitz, Inc.
We are pleased to announce that, with the generous support of numerous sponsors, we will be able to maintain the low registration costs from past MAPS conferences. The full registration is $150 if paid by April 1, and you can register by mail or online through the MAPS website. We hope to see you all here on Long Island this coming April!
Kerri Kiker, Conference Host
& Your MAPS Executive Board