New Zealand's first Skepticamp

As a part of this years Skeptics Conference, we're holding New Zealand's first ever Skepticamp. It's going to be held the night before the conference on Friday, the 6th of September.

So, what's a Skepticamp? It's a skeptical take on the "wildly successful BarCamp" gatherings. What's a BarCamp? It's a user driven conference that tries to distance itself from the images typically associated with professional conferences; expensive, sponsor driven and with a fixed format that's guided by a favoured few. For this reason, the term "un-conference" has often been used to describe them.

BarCamps are participant driven with no set agenda. Organised on the day (or close to it), anyone can give a talk or run a workshop provided that they a) stick to the timeframe and b) are prepared to answer questions and engage with the crowd after their talk. A Skepticamp is the same thing, but instead of focusing on technology as BarCamps do, Skepticamps focus on all things skeptical. Also, being skeptical, we expect speakers to be able to back their talks/claims/bold faced assertions with facts and references (citation needed).

Despite their name, BarCamps have nothing to do with actual bars (it's a geek joke) and usually neither do Skepticamps. Ours however is being organised by the NZ Skeptics In The Pub, and so WILL be held inside a bar - The Black Dog Brewery.

As mentioned above, you register on the day. We'll have a list of time slots up and you just let us know when and on what subject you'd like to talk. We'll be the slightly officious looking people in front of the whiteboard.

While this event is associated with the New Zealand Skeptics Conference it is an event that shall be open to the public. Conference registration is not required to attend this event. Details on the conference are available at http://conference.skeptics.org.nz

Please be sure to RSVP. Depending on numbers we may move the venue.