Welcome to the Live, Interactive Planetarium Symposium website!
Registration is now open for attendees and sponsors! Visit https://nku.eventsair.com/lips/2024 to secure your spot.
LIPS 2024 attendee registration fees (in USD) are:
Member of the International Planetarium Society (IPS): $185
Non-IPS member: $200
Student (actively enrolled): $125
Sponsors (one registration included): $450
Learn about IPS membership benefits at:
https://www.ips-planetarium.org/page/howtojoin
LIPS 2024 will take place Wednesday through Friday, September 4-6, and our host will be the Haile Planetarium at Northern Kentucky University.
This year will feature a theater skills workshop by Dr. Dan Dennis. Dan has a Master's of Fine Arts in Theatre Pedagogy from Virginia Commonwealth University and a PhD in Interdisciplinary Arts from Ohio University, where he now teaches. He has decades of theater and musical performance experience.
Dan is also a former supervisor of Pacific Science Center’s Willard Smith Planetarium. Since he knows from experience what types of skills are needed for successful interactive planetarium programs, Dan's LIPS exercises are sure to be practical and valuable for all attendees.
Learn more about Dan at:
https://www.ohio.edu/fine-arts/faculty-and-staff-directory/dennisd
Basic information about LIPS:
What: LIPS will specifically focus on live, interactive planetarium lessons: connecting with your audience; enhancing performance skills; classroom management techniques; sample activities; etc. LIPS' goals include:
To provide a participatory and practical professional development opportunity focusing on live presentations.
To offer an opportunity to network with others doing live, interactive shows.
To share information about available resources and products.
To share ideas for improving programs: content, teaching tips, classroom management, etc.
To explore what is required to start or improve an outreach program or business.
LIPS is different from other planetarium conferences in several key ways:
This is not a full-dome movie festival; instead it focuses on skills and techniques for live lessons. While there are sponsor demonstrations, these are live, interactive teaching demonstrations.
There are no true "lectures" at LIPS; all sessions should be interactive. Prospective presenters: Remember that attendees are coming to LIPS because they do (or want to start to do) live, interactive lessons. This audience wants to actively take part in sessions, not observe passively.
The audience size is limited to 40 to 60 attendees, based on host capacity. For 2024, the cap is set at 60 attendees. This limit is so that all attendees participate in all events together; there are no session tracks. Limiting attendance leads to a unique sense of cohesion by the end of each LIPS.
