8 Comments

1. Expert Member
   Michael Maines | Jul 29, 2024 11:59am | #1

   Registered!

2. 
   RomanJ | Jul 30, 2024 08:33pm | #2

   It would be fantastic if these events could be livestreamed/recorded for those who live remote....any chance?

1. 
   bcade | Jul 31, 2024 11:04am | #3

   Seconded! I'd be happy to pay more than the $170 ticket price for access to recordings. That's perhaps the thing I miss most about the pandemic, I was suddenly able to attend all of these amazing conferences for a fraction of the cost and time investment.

   Seeing as this is GREEN Building Advisor, it seems more than a little ironic to force people to travel long distances in order to access this information.

1. Expert Member
   Deleted | Aug 01, 2024 08:05am | #4

   “[Deleted]”

2. Expert Member
   Michael Maines | Aug 03, 2024 02:05pm | #5

   I asked Travis Brungardt, the co-founder and one of the primary organizers of the events, for his thoughts on recording them. He relayed this:

   "We believe pretty strongly that a tremendous benefit and key part of the Symposium is the community aspect. Sitting with strangers at lunch and talking through the mornings presentations or even networking at the happy hour adds a lot of value to the event, so if we offered video/virtual we wouldn’t do the event justice. That would “hurt the brand” so to speak in that people watching online would have a lesser experience and that impression could be shared to the detriment of future attendance.

   "The other reason we don’t offer recorded sessions is that we don’t own the content. As you know, it takes a ton of preparation to present on technical topics and the speakers aren’t compensated on a level commensurate for ownership and distribution of their presentations."

   .........

   That makes sense to me. I do take umbrage at the idea of GBA "forcing" anyone to attend. There are many places to get high-quality building science content online, including GBA and FHB webinars and other places. Among many other sources, Travis, I and the rest of the BS*+Beer team volunteer our time each month to provide free content on similar themes--and with a lot of the same (unpaid) guests--as they have at the Symposiums.

   While there are certainly carbon emissions associated with travel, the Symposium fee is a huge bargain, which goes to a relevant charity. Having been to many building science conferences, I'd place the value of the Symposium at around ten times the cost of admission, so you can use some of the savings to pay for travel and donate the extra to a good cause to offset your carbon emissions. I guarantee that if you're interested in the content, you will come away satisfied.

1. 
   Malcolm_Taylor | Aug 03, 2024 07:18pm | #6

   Michael,

   Kudos to Travis and the others who organized this. It sounds like a great conference.

2. 
   bcade | Aug 05, 2024 10:39pm | #7

   I appreciate the follow-up Mike, though I’m sorry to have wasted your valuable time responding to this, seemingly my tone of voice read more harshly than I had intended. I wasn’t trying to diminish the hard work anyone is doing, or to speak against the concept of an in-person event. I was trying to add a vote in favor of an asynchronous remote option, which happens to inherently be more sustainable, in case any of the powers that be should see it. For all I knew they weren’t offering it because of a perceived lack of interest, thanks to your effort I now realize that is not the case.

   My “forced” language was perhaps a bit strong, and yes, in general the information presented is likely available at a variety of sources, but in the specific case of the content of the symposiums there is no alternative than to attend in person. Per Travis’s comment on the content ownership, seemingly there is some proprietary value unique to these presentations.

   If it's any consolation, I completely agree with the value proposition of networking at in person events like this, in my previous line of work I attended over a hundred as an attendee, exhibitor, and or speaker. That being said, I think it’s fair to say that the in-person value is relative, and for my current situation, it simply doesn’t pencil out; in a few years that should no longer be the case.

   I personally disagree with Travis’ assessment that a recorded version would necessarily take away from the in-person version, alas it doesn't sound like there’s much appetite for it so I’ll save my breath.

   With or without an online variant of these events I’m still tremendously thankful for all the work done by the greater GBA team, yourself very much included, even if I do have the occasional gripe.

1. Expert Member
   Michael Maines | Aug 08, 2024 10:14am | #8

   Thanks for your clarifications. bcade. I have seen all of the presenters present on one or more occasions and they all put a lot of effort into creating unique, engaging and highly informative presentations.