After the great success of the first SpaceUp in France, at ESA HQ in Paris last year, we are getting ready for the second SpaceUp Unconference on French soil. This time the venue is as-epic as was last year’s: Cité de l’Espace (‘Space City’) in Toulouse, in the south of France. If you don’t know the biggest space park in Southern Europe yet, have a look at their spacetecular website.

The two-day SpaceUp on 20 and 21 September 2014 has an empty grid, but many on-the-side attractions and special guests to make this an event you don’t want to miss. Just click on above picture of the venue to see the special information and registration website. But hurry! Seating is limited!

Follow SpaceUp Toulouse on Twitter (@SpaceUpTLS) for the latest news.

The first SpaceUp to be held in Paris, France, will  be hosted at the European Space Agency (ESA) headquarters, on May 25th-26th 2013. The event will even include a kickoff on the 24th, hosted by the French Space Agency (CNES) and based around the upcoming launcher Ariane 6!

Today SpaceUp Paris is announcing its call for “60 seconds to land” videos.

We would like to invite you to send in a “60 seconds to land” video that we will play during SpaceUp Paris.
You can present anything you like from “why SpaceUp $cityname is awesome” or just send in a “bonjour” or present a topic that could lead into a discussion round. You are completely free to fill 60 seconds as you like. It doesn’t have to be professional, so webcam captures are okay for us, as long as they show your enthusiasm and can inspire participants!

The first “60 seconds to land” videos to be displayed were at SpaceUp Stuttgart, Germany, in October 2012, and we simply love the concept – it gives the opportunity to those who can not attend to still make a contribution to the event.

Just send your video in until May 19th so that we will find them. You can twitter the link to @SpaceUpParis, or send the link through our contact page.

More information about SpaceUp Paris and online registration are located at www.spaceup.fr.

=== Press Release ===

SpaceUp unconference launches in Europe

Space is boring! Space is a world of rocket scientists and geek engineers. Even more so now that the Space Shuttle has retired. Humanity has been on the moon and launched a few satellites. Now it is time to start focusing on our own planet again.

“Space is boring” is the title of a famous presentation, first shown at the SpaceUp unconference in San Diego in 2010. Objective of the presentation is to show the opposite is true: developments in the global space sector have never been as exciting as they are now!

SpaceUp is a new communication channel, rooted in the social media world. It is an unconference, meaning that the event is organized, apart from the actual program itself. The conference attendees determine the event content themselves. All people attending are expected to fill a conference slot with a space-related subject, gradually filling a blank grid of time slots. This very open format allows a great variety of visions, ideas and projects to be presented and discussed. It enables all levels in the space and astronomy sector to discuss topics they deem relevant. From space entrepreneurs, scientists, educators and futurists to students and enthusiasts, all are welcome.

The SpaceUp concept was born in the United States in 2010. Unhappy with the fixed-format traditional space conferences, a few space professionals took the ‘unconference’ or ‘bar camp’ format and added a space-theme. In the following two years the concept spread all over the North American continent, with events in dozens of cities. In September 2012 SpaceUp becomes a truly global platform, with the first event in Europe.

Six young space bloggers and tweeps from four European countries teamed up to test SpaceUp in the old continent. Their efforts resulted in SpaceUp Europe being held at the space-themed Cosmodrome Planetarium in Genk, Belgium, on 22 and 23 September 2012. Based on the great success in North America, they are certain they can spread the excitement about global space exploration to a new audience in Europe. In order to reach their goal they have teamed up with ESA, the International Space University and DLR, which are all supporting the event.

Shortly after registration opened there are already 50 attendees, all waiting for their opportunity to share their vision on the future of the European space industry. There are still slots available, so make sure you don’t miss your chance to be among the early adopters of SpaceUp Europe!

Go to spaceup.org/Europe for more information and registration.

With about 7 weeks to go until launch, we are happy to see that all systems are go and we have engaged the automatic start sequence. Well, entirely automatic it is not… It requires a bit additional work and learnings on the way to organize a SpaceUp event in another part of the world. Venue and date are set, ticket sales have started (could need a little boost though) and the website is being completed with travel and lodging details. We are also founding the SpaceUp Europe Foundation, enabling our sponsors to get tax deductions on their support.

Please keep an eye out to more news on this website soon!