Two Weekends, Two Conferences

If you’re in Omaha this weekend for the Midwest Freethought Conference, keep an eye out for me and for Brianne. We should be easy to find on Saturday. I can’t say for sure what the plans are for Friday night and Sunday yet, though.

I wasn’t planning to go to Omaha for this, but then I ended up with Friday off of work. Brianne said, “Hey, whatcha doin? We got room, you know.” So I looked at the schedule and saw a bunch of speakers I hadn’t heard before. Cool. And Amanda Kneif was going to be there. That clinched it. Luckily, the conference allows registration at the door.

Of course, Amanda will almost certainly be in St. Paul next weekend for our very own American Atheists Regional Conference, which the Minnesota Atheists are cohosting. This is the big one. This is where the anti-harassment policy gets rolled out!


My prediction? No one notices. After all, that’s pretty much the point of a policy. It sits there in the background, not doing anything until it’s needed. Or at least it does once it’s set the expectations for behavior, and those are pretty commonplace, all screaming to the contrary notwithstanding.

For anyone who didn’t get a chance to go to the Reason Rally or one of the other big conferences recently, this is a chance to hear Jessica Ahlquist speak in person. I’m looking forward to it. I got to meet her briefly at Women in Secularism, and she impressed the hell out of me. (The day after the conference, I’m interviewing her on the radio as well.)

Additionally, Teresa McBain will speak at the conference, and Robert Price will entertain us all, and…and…yeah, it’s a very good lineup.

After that, I may be done with conferences for a few months, until CSIcon in Nashville in October. CSIcon will present a strong mix of older and younger skeptics, working their butts off to inform and entertain. They do present a logistical problem, however. What kind of Halloween costume can I pack and still not have to check a bag?

That will kick off another busy period, as Skepticon follows very shortly thereafter. FtB should have a very strong presence at Skepticon. It’s JT‘s “home” convention, and a bunch of us are on the speaker list. It sounds like the plan is to have a table where you can learn more about us (which it may be pointless for me to tell current readers about) and find us in rotation. I don’t know whether there will be plans for an FtB-specific meetup, but it wouldn’t surprise me.

Then, shortly after Skepticon is Eschaton. It will depend on finances and time off, but I’d love to make it to this one as well. The organizers are no strangers around here, though not necessarily under names you’d recognize. The lineup is good, and I’m rather fond of Ottawa, despite having seen the first Star Wars prequel there.

So, who out there is heading to these conferences?

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Two Weekends, Two Conferences
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8 thoughts on “Two Weekends, Two Conferences

  1. 5

    Dang it! Someone else I’m going to miss out on. Sadly we can’t make it to the Midwest Freethought here in Omaha but were going to try to make it out to the meet and greet on Friday. If you’re still there after midnight (we’re at a baseball game earlier), is it cool if I fangirl on you? Nothing bad, just an “OMG It’s you guys!” type of thing. 😀

  2. 7

    Actually, I’ll be attending the MN Atheists conference next weekend. I’m not from MN, and I have never been to an atheist conference before … but that was the only atheist event happening when I had vacation time, and the line-up sounded impressive for a small meeting. Hopefully my very first conference/meeting/atheist gathering doesn’t disappoint!

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