| Our chapter made its presence felt at ConDor 2002 this weekend. Our table
was manned throughout the weekend. At the table we had literature about the society and Mars,
as well as photographs from the MARS Desert Research Station (the Desert Hab) and various slide
shows running on two laptops. |
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| We also gave a one-hour powerpoint presentation on the Desert Hab. The audience numbered 16
people who remained in the room throughout the talk and engaged in a lively question and answer
session afterward. Dave Rankin presented and narrated the slide show, which had been prepared by
Gerry Williams. Groff Bittner, Gilbert Ikezaki and Andrew Salomon joined Dave for the panel
discussion and questions and answers. Jonathan Butler was on hand taking photographs, running the
projector, and answering questions. Shannon Ruppert and Gerry were scheduled to be at the table on
Sunday. Their report will follow. |
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| On Sunday things were very sleepy at the Convention and at our fan table. John Stone
and I (with some occasional help from Bettina Davis) kept the table working from 10am to after
4pm (the end of the Con). Shannon did call in to see if she was needed, but I let her off the
hook because the Con was winding down. |
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| The dozen-or-so people who did stop and talk with us were quite interested in what we
are doing, and were well informed on Mars in general (no doubt thanks to the excellent panel
held the day before). |
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| We had the MDRS photos on the wall from the previous days. Besides a laptop running one
of our three MDRS PowerPoint slide shows, the table was adorened with more flyers, some of our
WebStore merchandise, my small Mars Globe (which was autographed by the ComicCon panel last
August), and of course a bobble-headed Marvin the Martian and his flag claming the table in
the name of the Planet Mars. |
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| I have a couple of low-rez pictures of the fan table I've uploaded to the Photos /
ConDor album here: |
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| http://photos.groups.yahoo.com/group/MarsSocietySanDiego/lst |
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| I also talked with some people who are operating another similar-sized (~300 members)
first-year Science Fiction convention in Mission Valley in October called ConJecture. We'll
need to discuss whether or not this will be a good outreach venue for us. |
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I talked with James Hay from ConDor about our panel -- he was really happy with the
turn out, especially considering we were opposite their two main Guests of Honor at the same
time. Their official count was 18 people in the room (which was over 6% of the attendance (285
were regestered as of Saturday night).
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