Reflections from Atlanta 2014

I’ve been back a few days now, but I’m still processing my visit to the second half of the first ever Atlanta Science Festival. The festival ran for 8 days, boasting more than 100 events in dozens of venues across the greater metro area: www.atlantasciencefestival.org. I can’t begin to describe all of the festival experiences (both planned and serendipitous) that I enjoyed during my visit, but here is a look at some of the reactions still knocking about in my head, in no particular order: There is a public demand for this kind of festival. I was happy to find that just about every event I attended or heard about was sold out or at capacity. Even better, the festival was packing it in with a wide range of different kinds of events and audiences. The Science of Beer event on Wednesday filled a large brewery with hundreds of thirty-going-on-twenty-somethings, selling out weeks in advance.

For the Dance of the Planets it took a long drive through gnarled highway traffic to find the Georgia Perimeter College campus, and once I did it took me about 20 minutes to find the classroom where this collage of talks and performances was taking place. After that I was surprised to find that at 4:00 on a Thursday the room was so crowded with college students and younger kids that there was only standing room in the back. I was lucky that someone had saved me a seat (thanks Evans!) for the Science Improv event at Georgia Tech on Friday I think it is fair to say that the festival organizers were feeling a mix of adrenaline, joy, and disbelief that the festival was working and people really were showing up. (I remember one quipping incredulously, “I can’t believe everyone is actually finding out about this and coming!”). Still, the mood among the organizers turned grim and anxious once they realized that the festival’s grand finale Exploration Expo had to be pulled inside due to crummy weather.

Originally scheduled in the easy-to-find and flowering-tree-filled Olympic Centennial Park, the forecast for rain gave staff about 48 hours to move all of the plans indoors and get the word out about the changed location. This was stressful and depressing. One of the organizers could only speak in swears. Another confessed to bursting into tears when first seeing the big gray drab box of a convention hall it was moved to. “It’s gonna look like a trade show and no one’s gonna be able to find it!” Festival staff and volunteers did a tremendous job with signage and wayfinding on the day of, but this still meant that to find the Expo you had to first hear that the location was changed, then score a parking spot in the middle of Atlanta, make your way into the convention center, and navigate an endlessly sprawling indoor complex that was already crowded with other professional meetings. I lost count of the escalators I rode to get to the actual Expo area. On the way down, accompanied by a seamless stream of festival-goers I overheard this exchange between a woman and her three-year-old: Girl: “We’re going down.” Mother (dramatically): “We’re descending to the science festival!” Girl: “Science festival? What’s a science festival?” Mother (with much less confidence): “Well…we’re about to find out.” night. The theater was at capacity with a mix of college students and families with older children.

This was a new thing for Atlanta, and no one knew quite what to expect. I had a great time hovering near the bottom of the last escalator and watching delight and surprise wash across faces as crowds turned the corner into the loud, bustling, and colorful Expo. The only thing more rewarding was seeing the relaxed ear-to-ear smiles on the faces of the organizers as they met the never-ending crowds coming around that corner. I had to leave the Expo early to catch a flight (that was ultimately delayed for hours). I don’t know the final number, but when I checked in halfway through the afternoon it was already over 13,000 attending. Yep: there is a public demand for this kind of festival. Those literary types sure can knock it out of the park I saved my Thursday night for the Encyclopedia Show (event on Atlanta Science Festival site). This event only had one shortcoming: it was hard to describe beforehand and is hard to explain afterward. But I’m going to try. The Encyclopedia Show is a “live literary variety show” (for those of you that know what to expect from that, maybe it is easy to explain). This has run as an event series in Chicago for over 10 years, and is active in other cities as well. Here are some of the elements that clicked together to create such a success:

• all performances under 10 minutes, many much shorter
• all material related in some way to the “Origin of Life” theme
• varied cast of characters providing near constant turnover on the stage (from 9th graders, to a troupe of skit comedians/story tellers, to professional writers, to “an actual scientist”)
• when not on stage, performers were seated in the audience, and knew when to enthusiastically react, prodding the rest of us to cheer, chant, or laugh along
• two Encyclopedia Show hosts that never left the stage, smoothing out the production, and making comments that helped out in the few instances of foundering

Highlights included:

• The poetry work of a 9th grade class that had spent a day discussing the origin of life with the Encyclopedia Show and a scientist from Georgia Tech: about 6 students were chosen to perform their poetry, and they were all fast, funny, emotional, on topic, and overall great. Yes, I enjoyed high school poetry. And so did everyone else.
• The impassioned telling of a essay by the 9th grade teacher, comparing Saturn’s moon Titan to the “alien world” of Atlanta’s inner city schools.
• A Write Club timed face off between two authors, one arguing for Faith, one for Proof. This included an involved and energetic comparison between the evolution of complex life and the emergence of Beyonce from Destiny’s Child. I cannot describe how, but this worked.
• Performances of pre-written pieces by the Encyclopedia Show hosts and two local poetry slam champions. We sang along while one changed the words of Suzanne Vega’s “Tom’s Diner” into an almost scientific explanation of the possible role of deep sea vents in the origin of life.
• Turning to a festival organizer when it was done and agreeing: “that was IT!” What more can I say? Find a group like this near you and go to their performances. When you are ready, ask them to do a show on a scientific theme. Then just try to find a good way to explain to your friends how awesome it’s gonna be.

T-shirts go a long way…but also never quite far enough.

The festival had many different t-shirts made up: bright magenta ones for volunteers and staff, charcoal and turquoise ones to sell. A separate batch had been made for Georgia Tech volunteers and staff in Georgia Tech colors: bright yellow and black (Georgia Tech served as a founding partner for the festival). These specialized Georgia Tech t-shirts were worn with an enthusiasm and pride that made me think that more festivals should consider coming up with clever t-shirts for their main partners. All of the t-shirts were popular, and I kept noticing them even when I wasn’t in a festival venue. It is worth pointing out that there was a batch of magenta ones that simply had a stylized “curious?” logo on the front, while a later batch of magenta t-shirts included the words “Atlanta Science Festival” under that “curious?” logo. Several of us noted a preference for the shirts without the “Atlanta Science Festival” wording, even though we are proud to rep the festival. Less branding is often more.

The festival sold these t-shirts at many of their events, but had to slash prices towards the end of Expo day when it became clear that even brisk, continuous sales of shirts weren’t going to come close to depleting the large number still in boxes. I feel like I have seen this over and over again: demand for festival merchandise like this never seems to live up to supply. Don’t be tempted by wholesale discounts!

A simple projector can turn a booth into an immersive environment

Others have probably done this many times before, but for some reason this is the first time I noticed it. Encourage your exhibitors in white booths/tents to bring a projector from the office and run non-technical video in the background. And somebody out there get busy designing an easy to use, cheap bracket system to hang a projector (or three!) from the top of one of these booths

The SFA’s pay-it-forward approach to helping new festivals works It was hard to believe that one of the main festival organizers was willing to join us for dinner on the Friday night before Expo Day. She had so much to do, and was very reasonably stressed out and tired. Yet she made time to talk to SFA staff and visiting festival organizers. When I commented on this she quickly replied, “You all have given us so much time and help, I’m just excited to start to pay it back.”

It is delightful when it works and excruciating when it doesn’t

Creating scenarios for scientists to engage with the public is one of the most important things that festivals do. This often involves asking for a short talk. When that goes well it is simply delightful, and you can tell it is working by the energy level in the room, the shared laughter, and the speed with which a talk flies by. When it doesn’t work it can be so painful, seemingly dragging on forever, and doing actual damage by making people squirm and feel trapped. The lowest point: instead of laughter the dreaded loud “shhh,” as someone in the room tries to maintain a respectful atmosphere for a speaker that has already completely lost their audience. As is almost universally common, both were on display in Atlanta (though the successes far outweighed the failures in the events I witnessed). Whether it goes well or not is only partly the scientist’s fault: it is up to the specific event organizer to carefully screen presenters (yes, even saying “no” every once and a while), to carefully coach them so that they are properly prepared, and to have control of the stage so that they have help if needed…or can be cut off when they’ve wandered too far and too long. Hmmm…if only there were some resources online related to this…

FIRST Robotics finals are a spectacle

A bit of serendipity saw the festival’s Expo in the room right next to a FIRST robotics finals. The festival added some exhibits to the FIRST robotics space to encourage cross visitation. The crowd for the robotics competition wasn’t about to leave the stands, but having these two right next to each other was overwhelmingly spectacular. On the left you’ve got over ten thousand people all bustling about to the sounds of a stage show. On the right you’ve got the raucous cheers of fired up fans for adrenaline charged teen robot builders. Moving between the two rooms was extraordinary: What a magical new normal! .