Day 2: OTS Conference

First: an opening for Outreach Coordinator at the Imaginarium in Anchorage is very tempting. There's a Center for the Performing Arts right across the street. Maybe they need a Theater Technologist?

Anyway, the conference continued to be a source of good inspiration. We dragged ourselves down into mucky areas as we debated the "what comes next" question, how do we move beyond the grant and into sustainability and all that. Our Collaboration of museums work well together on sharing ideas for how to do things during the grant, but because the museums are so different, we all have our own needs and ideas about how the exhibit becomes self-sustaining, or even if it can.

Also, our museum was the stand out of how we ran the program this year, and the only one with a change in direct management of the exhibits between years. Those are our challenges. I don't feel like I have the information and data necessary to make good choices in venues for next year, and I plan on using this year to experiment, collect data and make good choices for the following year. Everyone else had reached more of the types of venues they needed to for their data, and have information for making choices this year.

We also got a chance to hear more about the Imaginarium's Outreach program. They take planes to the villages, sleep on mattresses on gymnasium floors, pack in their own food (so they don't have to eat smoked fish dipped in seal oil), and get to reach entire families with programs and science they'd never see otherwise. Dog sleds, snow mobiles, the Alaska Ferry system, and lots of snow - all to bring science to some of the most rural villages imaginable. And totally worth it.

It was a good day. I've made good contacts for future collaborations. Got to know a guy from the Exploratorium who invited us down for Maker Faire in May. Sounds awesome, and would help me make even MORE contacts at Exploratorium - a very good place to have science museum contacts.

Summary - interesting discussions, great brainstorming, fun conversations and dinner, and an overall good time.