Experts Night Coordinator

Number of People: 1

Budget: $0

The person in charge of Experts' Night selects and schedules several conferees who would like to speak on their area of expertise, from computers and antique cars to handiwork, fine wine/spirits, history, medicine, music, art, and science. Recent topics are listed at the bottom of this page.

Each expert is assigned a room or a meeting place, depending upon the size of the estimated audience, subject matter, need for a viewing screen, etc. All the experts present their talks at the same time (to be determined each year, but usually Monday or Tuesday, starting around 8:00). Try to choose experts from different fields. Expert's Night differs from "Talks on the Rocks" in that it offers several speakers at the same time, and they talk indoors and have greater opportunity to show pictures or write on a board.

The person in charge should get a preliminary conferee list from the Chairs, as well as a list of conferees that volunteered to be an expert on the last Conference Evaluation Form, although this list may not be too helpful. Contact your experts before they get to the island, so that they will be prepared and can bring materials with them. You can contact them by phone or email. Be sure that they confirm.

Ask Conference Services for help with audio-visual needs. Projection is usually available in Elliot, Lawrence, and Newton. It is also possible to get one set up in the Pink Parlor or Sandpiper for example. You may need blackboards in certain rooms.

It's helpful to the Chairs if you provide them with a tentative list of Experts prior to the week on Star. On Sunday night, give a final list of speakers, topics, and locations to the Starboard Scribe to be listed on the boards and a list to the Chairs. On the night of the talks, tape a sign to the Starboard to announce the talks and the speakers, so that it is easy for all to see and read.

Ask experts to talk for about an hour, leaving time for questions. Discourage people from wandering from one talk to another.

Recent Topics

2022: Prison Education (Katy Weeks), Wine Tasting (Jeff Escobar), Renewable Energy (Tom Blum), Life on the Farm (Peter Erickson), Climate Change / Population Connection (Roger Kellman). Note: The wine tasting talk drew roughly as many people as the other talks combined. This talk should probably be scheduled separately.

Last updated by Roger Kellman, July 2022