ASTC 2023 Annual Conference
October 7–10, 2023
Charlotte, North Carolina, USA
Optional Events
Subject to Change
All Times EDT
This page includes additional information about optional events associated with the ASTC 2023 Annual Conference:
- Friday, October 6, 2023
- Saturday, October 7, 2023
- Sunday, October 8, 2023
- Monday, October 9, 2023
- Tuesday, October 10, 2023
Friday, October 6, 2023
Preconference ASTC Intensives
9:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. (half- and full-day; individual schedule varies)
ASTC Intensives are a chance for conference attendees to participate in focused learning experiences on a single topic, as well as to connect and network with peers with similar occupational and topical interests—before the start of the main conference. This year’s intensives:
- Building Bridges to the Future: leadership challenges of today and tomorrow – Curated for C-suite Leaders
- Cardboard City Collaborative: A scalable toolbox for developing community informed Maker experiences
- Creating Effective and Authentic Science Events: Exploring Careers and STEM with Ease
- Empowering informal educators to support learners during moments of struggle in making and tinkering activities
- Facilitating playful STEM: Unpacking exhibit elements that support meaningful STEM rich play for young children
- Tinkering Together: Engaging Diverse Youth and Families in Creating with Code
These sessions have limited enrollment, require preregistration, and generally have an additional fee.
Select as part of conference registration and pay any applicable fee.
Tree Walk with TreesCharlotte
3:00 p.m. – 4:45 p.m.
Take a walk on the wild side with TreesCharlotte! This educational event is led by our Community Arborist at a location in Charlotte known its robust tree canopy and tree biodiversity (exact location TBD). This event is open to guests of the ASTC Conference. We will have a table at the start of the tree walk with some general information about TreesCharlotte as well to provide general information and on the tree species you will be observing.
Comfortable attire and walking shoes are a must. A hat, a refillable water bottle, and sunscreen are recommended. Water and light snacks will be provided. Please plan to expect a brisk walk through the park.
Navigation and Networking Gathering
6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.
Whether this is your first time attending the ASTC Annual Conference or your fifteenth, join us for the ever popular Navigation and Networking Gathering! Meet some of your fellow attendees, find out how to navigate this year’s conference, win some swag, and have a few snacks.
Open to all conference registrants; first-time attendees especially invited.
Preconference Meet-Ups
7:30 p.m. –
Duke Energy Innovation Center at Optimist Hall, 340 East 16th Street, Charlotte, NC 28206
Join us at Optimist Hall to connect with other attendees around key topics and communities (details to come). There’s space reserved just for the ASTC conference, but you can explore the full food hall with tons of dining and drinking options.
Several affinity groups and communities are expected to have a space at the Meet-Ups, including the following:
If you are managing programs for adults or are interested in learning more about adult programs at science centers, join us for meet up on Friday, October 6 at 7:30 p.m. This Community of Practice (CoP), is looking to reconnect and engage with professionals in the adult engagement realm to build a robust support system for all of us.
This is a meet-up for any museums interested in creating and/or hosting interactive immersive experiences. This newly formed group, the Alliance for Immersion in Museums (AIM) is an IMLS-supported coalition of museums from across the country that will map out how we can best support each other and work together toward shared immersive experiences. This nascent group will grow over time, and all are welcomed for this meet up as we look toward the future.
If this is your first in-person conference, or you are new to the field, come hang out with other awkward yet excited newbies looking to build a network and/or make friends.
COVES members or member-hopefuls! Learn more about COVES here.
End of Day (EOD), End of Month (EOM), & End of Year (EOY) reporting:
We all do it – whether we want to or not! Do we do it well? Do we do it poorly? Can we trust the results? Do we procrastinate till we cry? I want to find others interested in the topic and willing to share about best practices, procedures, and softwares. What has worked well for you and what hasn’t in regards to reporting your EOD, EOM, & EOY data to your staff in a useful and timely manner.
This is a group who’s interested in the nuts-and-bolts of collecting data and re-distributing it internally.
Current iPAGE cohort members, iPAGE alumni, and iPAGE friends: let’s meet, connect, and reconnect. This is the first opportunity iPAGE has had to get together across cohorts since 2020! Please join in to gather and socialize informally.
iPAGE (NSF AISL #1612640 and #2011859) brings together ISI professionals from across the United States and is dedicated to supporting diversity, promoting inclusion, increasing access, and achieving equity in the ISI sector.
Learn more about iPAGE here: https://new.smm.org/ideal-center/ipage
Connect with marketing staff from across the ASTC community to swap tips and tricks, commiserate over challenges, and get inspired by your colleagues.
How are you and colleagues at your museum, science or technology center advancing racial justice? Let’s take some space to celebrate the successes and support each other through the challenges and missteps. And we can talk about the Smithsonian Institution funded Museums Advancing Racial Justice Convening that will be hosted at the Science Museum of Minnesota in April 2024 (www.smm.org/marj).
This meet up and the convening will be ways to learn and grow together as we seek to do meaningful STEM research and education that centers and advances racial justice.
The National Informal STEM Education Network (NISE Network) is a community of informal educators and scientists dedicated to supporting learning about science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) across the United States. https://nisenet.org/
Learn how to start a teen science cafe program at your museum.
Whether your organization produces, hosts, or does both, the challenges and opportunities around traveling exhibitions keep changing. Let’s get together to share experiences and think about new collaborations.
Chris Jiang and Brad Barkan will be available from Boss Display to answer any water table related questions. We may arrive closer to 8/8:30 due to flight arrival.
Open to all conference registrants. Food and drink will be available for purchase.
Directions: To get to Optimist Hall, take the light rail from the 3rd Street/Convention Center station four stops north to the Parkwood station. Turn right when exiting the station, and walk about 6 minutes along Parkwood Avenue to the first street on your right. The entrance to the Duke Energy Innovation Center will be right there.
Saturday, October 7, 2023
Code-switching Not Required
A Networking Lunch
12:00–1:00 p.m.
Networking Lounge in the Exhibit Hall (Booth #109), Charlotte Convention Center
Pause the code-switching for an hour and swing by this networking lunch to meet others who hold marginalized identities. Be sure to grab your lunch in the exhibit hall first.
Professional settings often have cultural norms that limit the full diversity of human communication styles, expression, collaboration, perspective-taking, and ways of approaching challenges. Come and meet a new friend (or two) who can be your ally as you navigate the rest of conference!
Open to all conference attendees who hold marginalized or intersecting identities related to race, ethnicity, first language, citizenship status, gender/gender presentation, sexual orientation, or ability.
Hosted by ASTC with Melissa Ballard (Director of Programs); Naomi Wallace (Manager of Impact Initiatives); and Kelly Tang (Manager of Communications).
Celebrating ASTC’s 50th Anniversary
5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
Ballroom Terrace and Prefunction Area, Charlotte Convention Center
Join us as we come together as a community to celebrate ASTC’s 50th Anniversary. Expect lots of fun and reminiscing about the last 50 years as we look forward to the next 50. Fun snacks and beverages will be available, but not a full meal.
Each attendee will receive a ticket for one drink, and additional beverages will be available for purchase. Please note that the Charlotte Convention Center is a cash-free facility.
Open to all conference registrants.
Sunday, October 8, 2023
CLIMATE CHANGE SHARE FAIR
Facing the Future: Sharing Our Collective Work & Engagement on Climate Change
3:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Exhibit Hall, Charlotte Convention Center
Join your colleagues working on climate change education, communications, initiatives, exhibits and projects to share information, learn from each other, and network. We will have display-boards and 4–6 ft tables available for each organization that wishes to share. Feel free to bring a poster-size summary, handouts, small interactives, works in progress or anything else others may find useful learning about your work and sharing with colleagues.
This is a great opportunity to elevate our collective work in the ASTC community and invite others to join the conversation. Feel free to share this with anyone who might be interested in participating. Everyone is welcome! Co-Hosted by The Wild Center and ASTC.
Please RSVP using this Google form.
Leadership Alumni Happy Hour
4:00–5:00 p.m.
Networking Lounge in the Exhibit Hall (Booth #109), Charlotte Convention Center
Are you an alumnus of one of ASTC’s leadership or fellowship programs? Stop by this happy hour to connect with other alumni, as well as ASTC staff and Board members. Leadership programs that ASTC has facilitated or supported include the:
- Noyce Leadership Institute
- New Leaders Fellowship
- Diversity and Leadership Development Fellowship
- Leadership Learning Labs
- Public Interest Technology Community Innovation Fellowship
- Community Science Thriving Earth Exchange Fellowship
- Community Science Dialogue and Deliberation Fellowship
No ticket or RSVP necessary.
Host Party
7:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.
Discovery Place Science, 301 N Tryon Street, Charlotte, NC 28202
We are so excited to party with Discovery Place. Stay tuned for more details about what’s in store, but you can count on the chance to dance, eat, and drink your way through this jewel of the Queen City.
You are encouraged to walk from your hotel to Discovery Place Science, which should take about 15 minutes. Buses will also be available to take party ticket-holders from the official conference hotels to Discovery Place Science. Buses will begin departing from the hotels at 6:45 p.m., and return buses will drop off at each hotel.
To attend the host party, be sure to purchase a ticket in advance as part of your conference registration (or on site at the registration counter in the Charlotte Convention Center, as supply lasts). All funds received will support ASTC’s New Leaders Fellowship Program. Guest tickets will also be available for sale at the registration counter for those not attending the conference.
Monday, October 9, 2023
Racing into the Future
6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
NASCAR Hall of Fame, 400 East Martin Luther King Jr Blvd. Charlotte, NC 28202
Full details to come, but this will be a free social event open to all conference registrants. Food and drink will be served, but not a full meal.
Open to all conference registrants.
Tuesday, October 10, 2023
Museum Experience Day
9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Discovery Place Science, 301 N Tryon Street, Charlotte, NC 28202
Discovery Place is excited to announce that they’ve partnered with interactive experience experts, Goosechase, to create an exclusive visitor experience for ASTC attendees! Explore and get to know Discovery Place and network with your peers like never before.
Don’t miss the chance to experience all that our conference host has to offer. Go behind the scenes in the aquarium, experience one of six IMAX films, or see demos and other experiences offered by ASTC members from around the world at Museum Day Live Showcase.
Open to all conference registrants. Free breakfast or lunch at Bean Sprouts cafe will be available for conference registrants.
Museum Day Live Showcase Schedule
More to come!
Discovery Theater
- 9:30 a.m. – Sub Zero by Discovery Place Science
- 10:15 a.m. – Africa’s Got Talent – The Science of Sound! by Unizulu Science Centre
- 11:00 a.m. – Lunch in Space by Cincinnati Museum Center
- 11:30 a.m. – One Sky, Many Eyes by Morehead Planetarium and Science Center
- 12:15 p.m. – Flame and Fortune by Discovery Place Science
The Stage in Cool Stuff
- 9:30 a.m. – NCSciFest: Sharing the excitement of STEM by NC Science Festival
- 10:15 a.m. – The Cursed Pumpkin Patch by Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science
- 11:15 a.m. – Will it Glow? by Discovery Place Science
- 12:00 p.m. – Under Pressure by COSI
- 12:30 p.m. – Combastalloon by Exploration Place
Aquarium Back-of House Tours
Conference attendees are invited to join us for a guided tours of our aquarium back of house area. Here you will see our support spaces including our jellyfish propagation area and coral culture space. We will talk to you about our aquarium operation and our collaboration with researchers and conservation teams near and far. Sign up at admissions during museum day!
Expected Schedule for Accenture IMAX Dome Theatre:
- 9:00 a.m. – Serengeti: Journey to the Heart of Africa
- 10:00 a.m. – The Solar System and Beyond (guided planetarium on Digistar 7)
- 11:00 a.m. – Beautifica
- 12:00 p.m. – Fungi
- 1:00 p.m. – Train Time
- 2:00 p.m. – Antarctica