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Thread: SELEM 10 - August 9th through the 14th, 2016 - Sign up now!

  1. #291
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    Damn! SELEM has ended and I have to wait 51 weeks for it to return!

    WOW, what an awesome event! As I say every year, this was the best SELEM yet. We had a wide range of interesting and fun presentations that filled the majority of four days. I saw many of them and thought all of the presenters did a great job. Where else can you listen to folks like Aron Bac's walk you through the young and exciting days of lasering with AVI?? Thanks to all of you who took the time to prepare presentations to educate and entertain the rest of us!

    The auditorium had more new content than ever before. We saw hours of awesome new content from recognized masters like Mike Dunn (firstlight_mike) and Chris (Swamidog). (Mike: I still have "Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round" stuck in my head.) We also had great new shows from up-and-coming talent like Jason (SaltyRobot) and Theo (Kang). There were even combination live interactive content from David Z (DZ), David F. (CountFunkula), and Tom Salt. Fun stuff!

    I admit I have not spent much time in ClubSELEM in the past (thumpy-thumpy music makes my old ears hurt). This year Sean (Soulfeast) generously handed me a pair of ear-plugs and he and Newlin put me on Rick's (Hitechvoop) rig controlling six of the thirty or so beautiful lasers that were set up in the Club. A bit to my surprise, I had a friggin' blast! In fact, I think it was my favorite hour and a half other than simply chatting with folks. Thanks to all the guys who contribute the equipment, effort, controllers and time and allow folks to play with them in the Club - its awesome!

    Speaking of chatting with folks, this is the best part of SELEM for me. We had a very well attended event this year and it presented all of us the opportunity to chat with folks that share the lasering passion. Old friends and new friends were to be found everywhere though-out the event. I just scanned the list of signed up attendees and count at least 30 people that I had a fun and in-depth one-on-one conversation with this week. Not to mention, where else can you chat with the CEOs of three major laser companies over a beer or glass of wine? My sincere thanks to Adam from X-Laser, Bill from Pangolin, and Francis from Laserworld for coming back to SELEM again and again to hang out with us enthusiasts and taking the time to answer our numerous questions and generously helping us out. I think the bottom line is if you weren't having fun chatting and learning from folks at the event . . well, you simply weren't trying!

    As always the food was awesome. Catering master and all-around-awesome guy Brad (Bradfo69) took great care of us for lunches and dinners. I can't imagine a SELEM without Brad! Many thanks to Adam (araugh), Bill (Pangolin) and Francis (Laserworld) for sponsoring dinners for a big bunch of hungry laserists. It is extremely generous of all of you!

    Thanks to everyone who took the time to set up and break down the facility. It takes a ton of effort to get this stuff up and running and then break it down after its over. These are the unsung heros that make SELEM the awesome event that it is.

    I'm sure I'm forgetting tons of folks, but there's one guy that I simply can not close without thanking: Adam Burns (Buffo). I've only been to SELEM for the past six years, but it was clear to me at my first SELEM that it takes passion, dedication and talent to arrange the biggest and most-awesomest laser enthusiast event on the planet. I don't think there are many folks who could manage this herculean event that many of us attendees/helpers plan our year around. I wish I had a better phrase to use than just a simple "thank you", but when I think of what Adam does for us, I really am at a loss for words.

    I can't wait for next year!

    -David
    "Help, help, I'm being repressed!"

  2. #292
    Bradfo69's Avatar
    Bradfo69 is offline Pending BST Forum Purchases: $47,127,283.53
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    Very well put David. PL needs a "like" button. It's 2:36 am and I'm just now hitting my pillow after leaving the venue at 3 so, a recap will have to wait until I've had some sleep but yes, this was the best SELEM yet. The extra day in particular helped make it perfect. I sent a text to Adam somewhere around Luray Caverns in Virginia asking it if was too late to turn around and go back and set everything up again. If he had said yes, I think I just might have done it.
    PM Sent...

  3. #293
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    I agree. THIS WAS THE BEST SELEM YET!
    David said it all.

    As most of you know I flew my Cessna to SELEM again this year.

    The flight up was smooth until I got just outside of Charlotte where I had to dodge a few popcorn storms. (No big deal I have radar) I also had a tail wind the whole way so I saved some fuel.

    The flight home was smooth too until 30 miles outside of Orlando. I also had a head wind the whole way. This was the same wind that helped me on the way up. During the flight I recalculated my fuel burn several times and determined that I was burning a lot more that planned. No problem though, I am required to have reserve fuel. The problem was that I had burned most of the 1 hr reserve I had and was worried about the storms I was seeing on radar around Orlando Executive Airport. 12 miles away from landing I had to divert to get around a storm. The tower had me switch over to Orlando Approach to get vectors. They were going to send me 15-20 miles away from the airport then route me back in. This could take 30-45 minutes. I didn't have enough fuel for this so I ended up landing at a nearby airport, refueling and waited out the storm in Orlando.

    I made it home yesterday around 5:30. These are the joys of flying cross country in a small airplane.
    I love it!
    Last edited by Lazerjock; 08-28-2016 at 08:22.

  4. #294
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    Oct 2014
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    Thanks everyone for making me feel welcome! It was my first SELEM (I have been to FLEM once...) and I really enjoyed it. It was nice to put a face to a name for the people I have chatted with on here and facebook over the last few years. As many learned I like to talk :P and I thank those who took the time to listen.

    I also work in another completely unrelated industry (producing Monster Jam monster truck shows) and many things between the industries are similar. You have friends who you only see a few times per year at most, but once you run into them at an event you pick up right where you left off. One of my favorite things, between both industries, is not the event itself but the friendships made and memories shared , often after the event. I now have stories and memories from both industries from the after-party (hanging out in the hotel lobby till the sun comes up), which really makes the whole weekend for me.

    Huge thanks to Adam for organizing and making me feel welcome, Brad for doing a disgusting amount of Behind-The-Scenes work that many may not notice, David for scheduling time for em to run my mouth throughout the weekend. It was great hanging out with some of my facebook friends in person for the first time, Jonathan (both), Anthony, etc. A pleasure to hang out with Aron Bacs even though I see him almost monthly in Orlando! Also an honor to hang out with Mike Dunn every night as I had never met him but was always impressed by his work, and nice to see Richard again as well! I enjoyed helping people fix their galvo problems in the lab.

    Too many names to list!

    My guest Vale also really enjoyed herself although she could only come for two nights due to the schedule of her non-Pangolin job. Thanks for everyone making her feel welcome!

    Huge thanks to Adam Raugh for contributing X-Laser scanner amps to go along with the scanner door prizes we gave out. Looking forward to seeing what Jason, Joe and Zach do with the scanners and amps they won!
    Sincerely,
    Ryan Smith
    ScannerMAX Mechanical Engineer
    ryan {at} scannermax.com

  5. #295
    swamidog's Avatar
    swamidog is online now Jr. Woodchuckington Janitor III, Esq.
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    i'll provide a real write up later, but here are my pics from the event:

    facebook (public gallery): https://www.facebook.com/swamidog/me...=3&pnref=story

    google (public gallery): https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/1...14075850457489

    please tag people and add descriptions.

    enjoy!
    suppose you're thinkin' about a plate o' shrimp. Suddenly someone'll say, like, plate, or shrimp, or plate o' shrimp out of the blue, no explanation. No point in lookin' for one, either. It's all part of a cosmic unconciousness.

  6. #296
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
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    Charleston, SC
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    Thumbs up SELEM X *ROCKED*!

    WOW! Such an amazing event that I don't know where to begin!

    This year broke all kinds of records: Highest number of signed waivers (84). Highest number of laser projectors (I think 24 in the club, 10 in the auditorium, and 6 in the cafeteria and gallery, for a total of 40, but I may have missed a few). Longest single day (Saturday ran until 4 AM). And largest excess of funds donated to PL (just over $600). Also we didn't tone-out the fire department this year when we triggered the building alarm, which is a huge plus!

    The camaraderie was nothing short of amazing. I feel like this group is my family now. The plaque was an especially nice touch - thank you! I only wish we could do this more often...

    There are far too many people that need to be thanked, but I will try anyway! First, hats off to our three corporate sponsors this year: Laserworld, X-Laser, and Pangolin. Without their generosity, we would have been on our own for dinner most night! Also, most of the door prizes this year were provided by Pangolin and X-laser. Thanks so much for that!!!

    This year we had tons of help from many, many dedicated members. Chad and Rick both hauled large trailers full of gear to the event (again), and this year I borrowed a friend's trailer to move my equipment too. That taught me what a huge pain in the ass it is to haul a big trailer like that! Really appreciate all the extra gear you guys brought!

    Also, Brad managed to score a sprinter van this year, and he had that thing packed right to the top! Made for an interesting load-in and load-out, but we used every bit of gear he brought! (Not to mention the fact that we ate every bit of the food he brought for lunches! Yum!) DZ had a mini-van full of stuff this year, and i saw lots of other vehicles that were "low riders" as they pulled in to the parking lot for load-in. I really appreciate all the work people put into schlepping their gear to and from this event!

    Speaking of load-in, we had lots of new faces present to assist with setup, and that really helped. We did have a few issues with power that had to be ironed out (my distro wasn't big enough for the gym, and we had to re-route the 3 phase for the stage), but thanks to Ryan Smith, Jonathan Rheem, and Dan Barlow, we got it all working correctly before noon on Wednesday.

    Newlin and Brad both worked very hard to keep us all fed, and I greatly appreciate their efforts. Also, Chris did a great job on the name badges this year, although we underestimated the number of guests! (Had no idea we would be this big this year!) Next year we'll plan for more. Bill Whitcher was very helpful setting up things in the gym and blocking out the windows, and he also kept on top of the trash cans that seemed to fill up in seconds!

    We had some incredible gear set up in the gym this year. (This is the new space for "Club-SELEM", and it really worked well.) Anthony Garcia spent a good bit of time helping people to understand how to use Beyond in a live environment in there. Also, we had a DJ in the club for several nights this year, thanks to Kevin and Will. Lasers are always more fun to control when you've got a real DJ and not just an I-pod to play with! I also thought it was great to see so many new faces test-driving the various consoles. Thanks in particular to Chad, Rick, Brad, and Will for letting people on to their consoles to get a taste of what it's like to be a laserist!

    This year we had lots of very interesting presentations. Aron Bacs was gracious enough to speak about his time at AVI and gave us a nice history of the company and it's efforts to push the state of the art of laser shows. He also demonstrated his Laser Synth software, which is capable of some amazing abstracts! Then too, Johnny Turpin demonstrated his Maxwell software, which while slightly different, is also very useful for making abstracts. Ryan from Pangolin showed us what goes into making a Saturn scanner, and Ethan showed us how to build our own video wall. We even had some RC fun with Chris, myself, and my son over in the field as we flew our quad-copters around a makeshift racecourse. (Lesson learned from that: be mindful of power lines!)

    Some folks have already been talking about the special "SELEM Veteran" shirts that were given out this year. This is something I came up with to recognize the truly dedicated members who have stuck with SELEM since the very start. The first SELEM had 23 people, and from that group only 7 are still attending:

    Bill Benner
    Jeff Burnsides
    Adam Burns
    Mark Edgar
    Aaron McDonald
    Bill Whitcher
    David Zurcher

    Well, there is an 8th person who also got a shirt... Ann Steadman, aka the Innkeeper at the Trott House, and now the Mayor of Newton.

    We definitely accomplished more this year than ever before. In fact, on the way to the Trott House on Thursday evening, Brad and I were reflecting on the fact that we had already done a great deal, and in previous years we wouldn't have even been set up yet! Everything went amazingly well. (No doubt the hard work by David K and Tiffany to keep things on schedule helped us a lot.)

    The new Group-Me messaging app was used to great effect, and I think we'll be using that for years to come. It sure was nice to get reminders right before something started (especially if you were on the other side of the venue and really wanted to see something!). Also, I think moving the food into the dressing room and spreading out the buy-sell-trade area to the backstage space really helped with the traffic flow problems we've had in past years.

    I have some pictures of the group that were taken by our "Babysitter" Pat on Saturday. I will try to upload those tonight. I don't have many other pictures, but I did grab a few short video clips in the club that I can post. I am curious if anyone managed to video the "Wheels on the Bus" show though... Somehow I missed both showings of that! Would love to see what everyone was chatting about.

    I know I've forgotten a ton of people, so please don't feel slighted. I'm still seriously sleep-deprived, and I'm having trouble keeping everything straight. We had so much going on it's hard to remember! I also missed a few presentations because I was busy doing other things, so next year I need to budget my time better...

    Once I catch up on my sleep I'll start a thread to kick around some ideas for improvements to next year's event. For now, my mind is still a blur! But yeah, I think I can speak for the group when I say:

    BEST SELEM EVER!

    Thanks to everyone who made it special!

    Adam

    PS: Forgot to mention the door prize winners... Here they are:

    FB3 and 3 custom shows - donated by X-laser - winner: Rick (Hitekvoop)
    Compact 506 scanner and amps - donated by Pangolin (scanners) and X-laser (amps) - winner: Jason (SaltyRobot)
    Compact 506 scanner and amps - donated by Pangolin (scanners) and X-laser (amps) - winner: Joe Hopkins
    Compact 506 scanner and amps - donated by Pangolin (scanners) and X-laser (amps) - winner: Zach (Laserman121)
    Free 1 year individual ILDA membership -donated by ILDA - winner: Chad (Fogman)
    First contact optics cleaning kit - donated by Jonathan (Platinum) - winner: Jeff (RGB-gas)
    Virtual Reality 3D Google Cardboard kit - donated by Rodney (Rodman)- winner: David (CountFunkula)
    Last edited by buffo; 08-16-2016 at 09:00. Reason: Added door prize winners

  7. #297
    Join Date
    May 2014
    Location
    Connecticut
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    Best week ever for 2016**.

    And SELEM X totally beats out both the Tesla Gigafactory and main plant tours I took just two weeks ago. And the main factory tour was *really* awesome.


    ** I'm getting hitched in October, so let's just keep this between ourselves.

  8. #298
    Join Date
    Jun 2010
    Location
    USA
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    310

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    I lack the necessary words to describe how amazing this event was. Always managing to top the last one!

    I'd found myself in a rut over the last year or so. Not really doing much lasering of any kind. I figured this would re-spark that drive in me. And boy did it!

    Honored to walk in the footsteps of giants. What a week.
    Only an electron wiggler like you would resonate at 30cm.

  9. #299
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Delaware USA
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    Thank you to everyone who came out to Party with us at SELEM 10.. Without you, SELEM wouldn't be nearly as awesome as it is right now..
    This week was nothing short of amazing.. Some of the finest and most brilliant people are all here to learn and be inspired from.. Thank you to all the food and door prize sponsors for your constant generosity.. It's appreciated more then you'll ever know.. Thank you to all the people who work behind the scenes to organize and make SELEM flow. This group has become very close and feels more like a family reunion then a LEM.. Well, to me anyway.. Thanks to Spec "keeper of all knowage" and for keeping us all in contact on the mighty PL and buffo (Adam) for keeping the dream alive.. Congratulations on the decade my friend...
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails image.jpeg  

    image.jpeg  


  10. #300
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    Jan 2006
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    Charleston, SC
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    Smile

    Awww man... You got me when someone was cutting onions in the Auditorium!

    The plaque was really nice, and completely unexpected. (As evidenced by my inability to contain my reaction in the photo above!)

    For another memory, here's one of the group photos that we took outside. This one was taken by our "babysitter" Pat, although Richard Gonsalves managed to clean it up a bit with a brightness filter. (Pat admitted he had the camera set incorrectly for the low-light, which is why it's so grainy.)

    Click image for larger version. 

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    Adam

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