SpaceUp Nigeria

SpaceUp Naija is here!

The Space Affair is burgeoning in Nigeria aka Naija! Watch out for more as the lovers of space are brought together in the beautiful metropolitan city of Lagos to interact and have fun. Important topics in the space sector will be discussed in an atmosphere of total freedom and relaxation, where participants get to decide the topics and the structure of the event. The program provides opportunity for everyone who attends to give a talk or start a discussion. There are no spectators at SpaceUp, only participants.

SpaceUp Nigeria 2018 will take place April 28 on the campus of the University of Lagos, Nigeria.

SpaceUp presented at IAC2017

Ever since SpaceUp became a global event, people have written about the concept in different blogs and for different conferences. In September 2017 our CEO wrote a paper about the evolution of SpaceUp between 2010 and 2017, which was presented at the International Astronautical Congress in Adelaide, Australia. The paper describes the principles of SpaceUp, plus the success factors of why SpaceUp is such a great success. Because the paper has a lot of very useful information for SpaceUp organizers, we decided to make it available here. Please note that copyright of this paper is with the International Astronautical Federation.

SpaceUp_IAC2017

Download the IAC 2017 paper here

SpaceUp is Evolving

SpaceUp is a worldwide leading space unconference concept. As a concept it is a living creature that evolves with every event. This was made clear in the closing talk of SpaceUpX at the prestigious Ecole Polytechnique. The local organizers added a few new features that may – or may may not – evolve into new SpaceUp traditions, just as T-5 talks, ’60 seconds to land’ videos and Moon pie eating contests are. Below presentation highlights this evolution as something to cherish, something that makes SpaceUp Unconferences ever richer and more attractive to participants and sponsors.

SpaceUpX about SpaceUp from Remco Timmermans

About the name SpaceUpX: The Ecole Polytechnique is a technical university just outside of Paris, France. It was founded in 1794 and turned into a military institute by Emperor Napoleon in 1804. This ‘Grand Ecole’ is locally known as l’X (the X), due to its military logo of two crossed cannons. It produced three Nobel prize winners, as well as three French Presidents and numerous Ministers. Former head of ESA and special speaker at SpaceUpX, Jean-Jacques Dordain, is an alumni and taught here for many years. I am sure we will hear more of the SpaceUpX local organizing team in the future!

Impressions of SpaceUpNL

by first-time SpaceUp participant Lars Hoving

The second Dutch edition of SpaceUp Netherlands (3 October 2015) kicked off with a pre-event the day before, at Delft University of Technology in Delft. Starting with drinks and a nice pizza dinner the participants of the unconference were welcomed. Followed by a unique and very interesting documentary in the evening about the MARS2013 Analog Expedition in Morocco, by the Austrian Space Forum (ÖWF). The evening resulted in energetic discussions and inspiration for topics to be discussed during the unconference the next day. For a lucky few it was even possible to join a behind-the-scenes tour at the facilities of ESTEC in that afternoon. Another nice addition was that the SpaceUp was followed up by the open day of ESA-ESTEC on the Sunday.

SpaceUp Netherlands Continue reading →

SpaceUpX is coming!

SpaceUpX? You mean SpaceX? SpaceUp at an unknown location perhaps? No! It is the name for the next edition of SpaceUp Paris, at the Ecole Polytechnique, that uses the X as its main logo. Registration just opened, so join us in Paris for another epic SpaceUp unconference in France on 7 and 8 November 2015! Go to the official SpaceUpX (Paris) website to join!

SpaceUp Rocks the European Astronaut Centre: SpaceUp Cologne

“Welcome, do you want to talk?” asks Jan Svoboda, one of the SpaceUp organisers, pointing at the session grid, a whiteboard depicting all speaker slots for the first day of SpaceUp Cologne. This might seem an unusual conference greeting, but not so with a SpaceUp ‘unconference’…

Read the rest of this wonderful story at the ESA website, written by SpaceUp Cologne participant and ESA HQ Crossmedia Manager Marco Trovatello (@marco_t) at the ESA Social Space blog here.

How to organize an unconference: From idea to reality

It’s been a while since SpaceUp Bremen was organized, but this very successful event came up at the SGAC Gala Dinner at the Ontarion Science Center last night, when a bunch of SpaceUp veterans discussed ideas and plans. There is rumor of a new SpaceUp in Bremen in 2015, possibly with a few new elemens.

Anyway, when talking to one of the SpaceUp Bremen organizers, we also talked about lessons learned. She will present these at IAC in Toronto later this week, and she wrote a cool blog post about it too, called “How to organise an Unconference : from the idea to the day it really happened“. Great lessons for other organizers. Have a look!

SpaceUp Bremen group photo (12 April 2014)