[Sketching18] Sketching in Hardware 2018, Detroit, July 27-30 Update #4

[Mike Kuniavsky]

Hi! This is the fourth update sent to the participants of this years' 
Sketching in Hardware summit. If you don't have the previous ones, please 
let me know and I'll forward them.

CONTENTS
- Hotel block is full
- Preliminary schedule is up!
- Presentation guidelines
- Bring your tech for Science Fair on Sunday!
- Summit co-host Wendy Ju
- Charrette format change
- THANK YOU, SUPPLYFRAME AND THE HENRY FORD!

THE HOTEL BLOCK IS FULL
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
As a number of you found out, the hotel block we reserved is full. Our 
apologies for those who couldn't get our rate. Predicting how many hotel 
rooms we use is always a challenge, and this year we underestimated how 
many rooms we would use (last year we overestimated, so we decided to go 
lower this year and went too low). There are AirBNB options and reasonable 
hotel rates for places nearby. If you have trouble finding a place, please 
let us know and we can point you to some things we've found.

PRELIMINARY SCHEDULE
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Leah and I have put together the initial schedule for Sketching this year. 
Through some maneuvering, we have put together an Old School Sketching 
all-presentation schedule:

https://tinyurl.com/sketching18-schedule

Please check it for several things:
- That you're on it. If you're not, please let me know ASAP.
- That I have put the topic you want to talk about. For many of you, I 
guessed based on your survey responses, so please edit. For those whose 
topics I didn't have I put in TBD. Please put in a topic (see the 
guidelines below if you're stuck, or email me if you'd like a sounding 
board for what to talk about. Remember: it's a friendly, technical 
audience that will completely welcome your half-formed ideas).
- If you would rather do something other than a presentation, such as a 
discussion or an interview, let me know and we'll accommodate.

You all have edit permission to the schedule, so feel free to adjust it 
appropriately, but (for the same reason), please don't share the URL.

PRESENTATION GUIDELINES
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Here are our solo presentation guidelines:

  - The format is quite open and the content is up to you.
  - The two most important qualities in the presentation should
be that you talk about something that is exciting to you and, if possible, 
something that you haven't talked about elsewhere.
  - If you would like to team up with someone and present together, that is 
totally fine, too.
  - It should be 18 minutes long, and no longer. We are going to be very 
strict about time limits because the schedule is so packed.
  - Please minimize biographical information. If you'd like to present a 
retrospective of your work to set the context, please keep it to 3 
minutes, but the bulk of your presentation should be about something new 
or something old that's totally awesome.
  - Please limit any video you show to 1 minute or less, unless it's so 
awesome that it can't be contained in 1 minute. In that case you can play 
it for 3 minutes.

Your audience will be technically sophisticated, but not necessarily 
engineers, so please calibrate the technical content of your presentations 
accordingly.

SCIENCE FAIR!
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Please bring technology, demos, half-finished ideas with wires hanging out 
to our Science Fair on Sunday afternoon. Thanks to the generous folks at 
the David Whitney Building, we'll set up a room with tables where you can 
install your work and then demo it. The format, as the name implies, is 
science fair-ish, with the goal of getting an opportunity to get extended 
hands-on experience with new technologies and to demo to your fellow 
sketching attendees.

WELCOME CO-HOST WENDY JU
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Because of a family health situation (my dad is pretty sick) I can't stay 
for all of Sketching this year. However, I am leaving the MC duties in the 
fantastically capable hands of Wendy Ju, Cornell Tech professor, 
pioneering human-robot interaction researcher, and lovely person. THANK 
YOU, WENDY!

More about Wendy: https://tech.cornell.edu/people/wendy-ju/

CHARRETTE FORMAT CHANGE
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Thanks to the generosity of The Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation, 
who have again let us their amazing facilities (the inspiration for both 
technology/history museums all over the world AND Disneyland!), Monday 
will be spent at the Henry Ford, with Sketching providing transportation 
there and back. I had originally planned to organize a multi-stage 
activity like last year, but my current personal situation means I likely 
won't be able to get the time to prepare for it, so here's the new plan: 
Monday will be a hands-on unconference/hackathon with the goal of creating 
artifacts that respond to themes that emerged during the 
presentation-focused part of the event. Sketching will provide tools and 
materials, facilities and a proposed schedule, and we'll let you, the 
participants, self-organize to discuss, experiment, design and distill. At 
the end of the day, you will share what you said, thought, learned and 
made with each other (and hopefully someone will take video and pictures).

Please let me know if you have questions, suggestions or ideas for this 
new direction.

THANK YOU SUPPLYFRAME AND THE HENRY FORD
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Thank you to our newest sponsors, Supplyframe ( https://supplyframe.com/ ) 
and The Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation ( 
https://www.thehenryford.org/ ).

Thanks, again, to Particle ( https://www.particle.io/ ) and (as always) 
ThingM ( http://thingm.com/ ).

We are incredibly grateful for your support. Your help has allowed us to 
grow 50% in the last couple of years, while providing the same experience 
as when we were a much smaller organization.

THANK YOU AND SEE EVERYONE IN LESS THAN 3 WEEKS!

-- 
Mike Kuniavsky
mikek at sketching-in-hardware.com