nerd nite wellington

Posts Tagged ‘New Zealand’

Greetings and salutations!

A scant week and a bit before the fabulous nerd nite coming up on September 16th, is the New Zealand Skeptics Conference 2013.

Taking place in Wellington this year, it looks to be a goody. It will feature three days of talks, workshops and New Zealand’s first SkeptiCamp! And some dinners too, I believe 🙂

Say the organisers, “while there will be a wide range of talks and presentations this year, all of them will be based – however loosely – around the theme of science communication.”

So, yes. Head on over to the website, and seriously consider coming along! Some brilliant speakers from NZ and abroad will be speaking, including Kylie Sturgess, Martin Manning, Siouxsie Wiles and many more!

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P.S. I (aimee, the host of nerd nite Wellington) certainly don’t class myself in the above, but I’m giving a talk, too. Which means I’ll likely be at at least one of the dinners, and some (if not all) of the conference 🙂

P.P.S What’s a Skepticamp?

Well, it’s the first of its kind in NZ –  its going to be held the Friday before the conference, and conference registration is NOT required to attend this event.

What’s does it entail? Its a user driven conference that tries to distance itself from the images typically associated with professional conferences; expensive, sponsor driven and with a fixed format that’s guided by a favoured few. For this reason, the term “un-conference” has often been used to describe them.

Organised on the day (or close to it), anyone can give a talk or run a workshop provided that they a) stick to the timeframe and b) are prepared to answer questions and engage with the crowd after their talk. Being skeptical, we expect speakers to be able to back their talks/claims/bold faced assertions with facts and references (citation needed).