European BigLEM / Laserist Conference 2012

[-bart-]

My guess is you will have between the 50-100 people attending max.

What if we have a laserpointer section, we could tenfold that.

Well..
errr...

Good for publicitity too, headlines:
Laserterrorists set fire to congrescentre !

...nevermind

[kl79]

yes, for me 100 max people will be a very good think.
Just for France...if we are 15 or 20 it will be a feat !

[mccarrot]

What if we have a laserpointer section, we could tenfold that.

Well..
errr...

Good for publicitity too, headlines:
Laserterrorists set fire to congrescentre !

...nevermind

Breaking news:
10 people blinded at a laser conference.

I know I will not be speaking anymore, unless everyone is body searched

[Stoney3K]

I think you need to get every single true laserist on this planet and beyond to get to this number.

My guess is you will have between the 50-100 people attending max.

That's why I'm not aiming solely at laserists.

The target audience is not only laser operators, but also anyone in the laser/sound/light business and anyone else interested.

Yes, that means the event will be public. But it also means we can put down a tremendous show at under 10xMPE, just to prove a point that eye-safe shows don't have to look boring.

[masterpj]

Stoney3K with all respect, but it's called an LEM for a reason.
LASER Enthousiasm Meet

[Stoney3K]

Stoney3K with all respect, but it's called an LEM for a reason.
LASER Enthousiasm Meet

Hence the reason I wanted to call it a Laser(ist) Conference.

Part of my goal is to make laser displays and laser safety more aware at the general public. The LEMs are great as insiders' meetings, but as a laserist I want to be able to perform my shows for all the world to see, and let everyone know that this is a safe and responsible business with interesting projects.

[masterpj]

I understand what you mean with showing your lasershows to the world, but what kind of worries me is that people have to seek people that do lasers and do not, in other words there either gets a seperation between the laserist and lighting people.

However the idea of having a huge amount is really cool, I didn't say I don't like the idea, I think it's fun to have a mass amount but some things need to be done to avoid seperation between the groups :P

Also showing your lasershows to the world is a matter of promoting something in a special way so that the rest of the world will see it too, make something no one has ever seen before and then spread over alot of video sites and especially if it's a certain subject lasershow, head over to those forums and have your video appear there, I can't think of an better way :P

I'm promoting a bit and preparing too ;3
I got some specific 3D files ready which aren't really ment for sharing but really are appealing to a certain group, I think this will create a publicity in that group.
*I hope*
Off course I won't be focussing on one group but it's one of the things I have in mind.

What I do know is that already certain things of this group made the news on alot of country's.

Country's : Poland, Russia, USA, UK, France, Japan, Thailand and perhaps more.

Now I can't off course guarantee if this method is going to work, but that's what I'm going to find out.

[Stoney3K]

I understand what you mean with showing your lasershows to the world, but what kind of worries me is that people have to seek people that do lasers and do not, in other words there either gets a seperation between the laserist and lighting people.

However the idea of having a huge amount is really cool, I didn't say I don't like the idea, I think it's fun to have a mass amount but some things need to be done to avoid seperation between the groups :P

I think that's not going to be a big issue. If you go to 'hacker conferences', there is no separation between the 'hackers' and the 'non-hackers' -- most of the time, the guy sitting next to you at the beer table is giving a talk in half an hour.

In principle, anyone who has an interesting subject to share which is on some level related to lasers in general, is more than invited to prepare a talk and share knowledge with the world. This is not neccessarily related to laser displays only -- I think most PL members (and laser-interested people in general) would also be thrilled to hear the inner workings of the Megajoule fusion laser, for example.

Now it is true that the general focus of the conference will be on laser displays, but that doesn't mean talks that have nothing to do with displays will get rejected. On the contrary -- the more variety in subjects, the more chance we will have that a LOT of people will show up and make the event a successful one.

I'm also thinking about the 'lase-off' concept, as the free-for-all is an awesome idea but something we can *always* do at a social party on the saturday night (something that should NOT be forgotten, Belgium has some great beers!) and the laser display contest could look a little more like a 'masquerade' on a science fiction convention:

Information about the venue, entry length and technical details are provided beforehand, and contestants send in their show files (and possible additional technical details, like putting up their own projector), so everybody gets a separate slot. This also increases the variety of shows and can add serious entertainment value if you drop in some good presentation.

Judges can give points or the awarding can go through an 'audience choice' way. After the contest ends, the DJ kicks in and every contestant can fire up their projectors to their heart's content.

[masterpj]

I think that's not going to be a big issue. If you go to 'hacker conferences', there is no separation between the 'hackers' and the 'non-hackers' -- most of the time, the guy sitting next to you at the beer table is giving a talk in half an hour.

In principle, anyone who has an interesting subject to share which is on some level related to lasers in general, is more than invited to prepare a talk and share knowledge with the world. This is not neccessarily related to laser displays only -- I think most PL members (and laser-interested people in general) would also be thrilled to hear the inner workings of the Megajoule fusion laser, for example.

Now it is true that the general focus of the conference will be on laser displays, but that doesn't mean talks that have nothing to do with displays will get rejected. On the contrary -- the more variety in subjects, the more chance we will have that a LOT of people will show up and make the event a successful one.

I'm also thinking about the 'lase-off' concept, as the free-for-all is an awesome idea but something we can *always* do at a social party on the saturday night (something that should NOT be forgotten, Belgium has some great beers!) and the laser display contest could look a little more like a 'masquerade' on a science fiction convention:

Information about the venue, entry length and technical details are provided beforehand, and contestants send in their show files (and possible additional technical details, like putting up their own projector), so everybody gets a separate slot. This also increases the variety of shows and can add serious entertainment value if you drop in some good presentation.

Judges can give points or the awarding can go through an 'audience choice' way. After the contest ends, the DJ kicks in and every contestant can fire up their projectors to their heart's content.

Sounds Really awsome, I can't wait.
From which country's will laserists be expected?
as not all laserist are on PL and not all laserists on LPF either

Will you announce on more forums?

Also please either restrict pointers, I already can see some random people trolling some graphics shows by constantly pointering through it, that's ok for a few times, but the more people the more chances this can happen.

Try to forbid pointers if possible, if we are with a massive amount a slow moving laser can more easly hit someone.

But yes really really try your best to get this arranged, 2012 is quite far away though.
I simply can't wait.

Also how long will the converence ground be open (estimated) *as it will be spread over a couple of days as I've read.

[Stoney3K]

Sounds Really awsome, I can't wait.
From which country's will laserists be expected?
as not all laserist are on PL and not all laserists on LPF either

Will you announce on more forums?

The event is open to anyone, although speakers need to go through a different registration process once the conference 'Call for Papers' has been made official. Once the major event details (where, when, how much) have been roughed out, I will announce on other laser-related message boards and possibly try to get a message through to ILDA. The big laser manufacturers (Spectra, Coherent, Medialas, Pangolin, etc.) are still on my to-contact list when it comes to an exposition booth or sponsorships.

Also please either restrict pointers, I already can see some random people trolling some graphics shows by constantly pointering through it, that's ok for a few times, but the more people the more chances this can happen.

Try to forbid pointers if possible, if we are with a massive amount a slow moving laser can more easly hit someone.

I will see what I can do, but I hope you can understand that security checks at the entrance are nearly impossible to enforce and someone who deliberately wants to spoil a show using a pointer will still be able to do so. But the least we can do is inform people as much as possible that pointers (or any running lasers, for that matter, save for DVD drives) are not allowed in the public areas. So any laser-related equipment that has the possibility to emit will have to be in a somewhat restricted area, such as in a separate workshop room or accessible through back-stage only.

But yes really really try your best to get this arranged, 2012 is quite far away though.
I simply can't wait.

I deliberately aimed for 2012 since I wanted to get a multi-day event up which would attract some good media attention. A simple LEM with under 100 people is easy to pull off in a month's time, and a single-day mini-conference is something we can do in 2011 anyway if we want.

Also how long will the converence ground be open (estimated) *as it will be spread over a couple of days as I've read.

My intention is to start at Friday evening after dinner and close on Sunday night, so the Friday and Saturday nights are available for displays and social gatherings. If we plan the event in the autumn or spring, there may even be enough night-time to allow for some (limited) outdoor displays as well.