My last Space Generation Congress

Its now November first. SGC Hyderabad finished more than a month ago. In that month, a lot has changed. I have moved which took more time than anticipated. I want to look back on the Space Generation Congress over the last few years and speculate about the event in Glasgow as it will be my last one to organize.

I first came to Space Generation as a delegate in 2004 on a recommendation from a mentor of mine. I really did not know what I was getting into. I thought it was a three day work shop where I was going to discuss some philosophical issues about exploring Mars with a diverse group of students and young professionals from around the world with different backgrounds. After three days at SGC, I had two great new friends who I still talk to almost daily (they live in Australia) and a much different understanding of why space exploration matters to those who do not live in the United States. I quickly was asked to help organize the Moon Mars Workshop to take place a year later in Fukuoka Japan as part of SGC 2005. I was also asked to go to Vienna in February of 2005 as a delegate for SGAC to the UN COPUOS session. This all totally changed my life. Having to work around time zones, not just two or three hours different from me, but 11 or 12 hours. Working in virtual environments before Web 2.0 was popular was something else new to learn.

Overall, the last three years in SGAC have been great. Looking ahead, SGC Glasgow should be interesting. We want to make some changes to improve the congress in several ways. There will also be challenges along the way, mostly fiscal due to the strong economy in the UK relative to the rest of the world. We will do our best to keep the costs down and provide the rich experience everyone expects.