11 Mar 20. Dear USA Science & Engineering Festival Supporters, The health and well-being of our Festival community are of utmost importance to us. With this in mind, the Festival leadership has made the necessary decision to postpone the April USA Science & Engineering Festival (USASEF) until further notice.
This postponement includes the Festival Expo, X-STEM, Sneak Peek Friday and Inspire Educators Workshops scheduled for April 23-26, 2020. The previous USASEF welcomed over 350,000 attendees, an attendance number that warrants too great a risk of exposure and transmission of the coronavirus (COVID-19). As an organization rooted in science, we will continue to follow the guidelines of the CDC, and we encourage you to stay up to date on their website here.
What does this mean for the near future?
At this time, we are actively pursuing new dates for the USASEF. Our goal is to find a date over
the summer or early fall. It has been our mission for a decade to provide the most compelling and exciting hands-on STEM programs and events to inspire the next generation. Along with the support of our sponsors and partners, we look forward to continuing to fulfill our mission.
We will be issuing refunds for paid tickets to the USA Science & Engineering Festival Expo and the X-STEM Symposium. Please allow 7-10 business days to process the refunds. If you do not receive a refund by Monday, March 30, 2020, please contact us at .
Thank you for your ongoing support as we continue to navigate through these uncharted waters. The Festival team is heartbroken over this circumstance. We have been diligently working for the past 22 months to make the Spring 2020 USASEF a huge success. We wish you good health during this crisis and look forward to a safe family experience for the future USA Science & Engineering Festival.
Please remember to cancel any travel booked for this event.
Sincerely,
Marc Schulman
Executive Director, USA Science & Engineering Festival
11 Mar 20. Coronavirus: AUSA Cancels Huntsville Conference. “This was a tough decision,” association president Carter Ham told Breaking Defense, but with over 6,000 people expected to gather in close quarters, “I am confident this is the right decision.” The Association of the US Army has cancelled its annual winter conference in Huntsville, Ala. Scheduled for next week, the Global Force Symposium & Exhibition is the latest major event shut down as a precaution against the contagious COVID-19 coronavirus, which Army researchers have been mobilized to combat. The virus has shut down parts of the F-35 fighter supply chain and caused the Pentagon to restrict travel and implement social distancing measures.
“Sydney, we have truly enjoyed having the Global Force Symposium and Exhibition in Huntsville over the past several years, so this was a tough decision,” retired Gen. Carter Ham, AUSA’s president and CEO, told me in an email this morning. “Last year, about 6,400 people attended. But, out of concern for the health and safety of the expected attendees and exhibitors, I am confident this is the right decision.”
“Gen. McConville was informed of the decision to cancel the Global Force Symposium by AUSA leadership,” said a spokesman for the Army Chief of Staff. “He understands the reasons for AUSA’s decision and supports their efforts to mitigate the risks associated with COVID19. While it’s unfortunate the event had to be cancelled, we applaud the efforts AUSA made to ensure the health and safety of vendors, sponsors and attendees,” said the Army’s civilian acquisition chief, Bruce Jette, who had planned not only to speak to the gathering but to award over a million dollars in prizes to innovative small business there. “We value each opportunity to meet with innovative companies, and we are continuing conversations to move forward with the Army’s top priorities in readiness, modernization and reform.” (Source: Breaking Defense.com)
11 Mar 20. International Lidar Mapping Forum Postponement. Unfortunately, due to the public health and safety issues posed by the rapidly escalating COVID-19 outbreaks, the International Lidar Mapping Forum, which was planned to take place on March 23-25, 2020, in Washington DC, has been postponed until further notice. NCTech are expecting to receive guidance from Diversified Communications (the ILMF event organisers), detailing the changes to the event schedule over the coming days. We will issue further updates as soon as new information becomes available. If you have any questions regarding this decision, or if you have registered to attend ILMF, then please contact for further information.
11 Mar 20. IT²EC 2020 puts technology in the spotlight. IT²EC 2020 will take place 28-30 April at ExCeL London. IT²EC 2020 is putting technology firmly in the spotlight this year, with a new Technology Lounge to form part of the DisTec show floor experience for the first time.
The hands-on lounge is being delivered in association with IT²EC’s official technology partner, RiVR. It will give attendees the chance to experience some of the latest and most innovative products currently in development for the training and simulation market.
Attendees will be free to interact with new technologies designed for real-life training applications including arson investigation, firefighter training and armed police response. The pioneers behind the technology will be on hand throughout carrying out demonstrations and giving visitors the chance to experience the future of training, today.
RiVR develops assets in both 360 video and photo realistic virtual reality experiences, in order to offer immersive training experiences for all industries. The company can scan any real-world environment and use its RiVR VR Simulation Engine and Virtual Reality Monitor to recreate a photorealistic virtual reality and enable cutting-edge training anywhere in the world.
The Technology Lounge will feature areas dedicated to:
– VR Competency Training: Photo realistic and fully interactive virtual reality competency training to experience what happens when fire investigators turn up to a burning building;
– Virtual Reality Classroom: Get hands-on with RiVR Link and immerse yourself in a range of different training scenarios to understand how training is changing the way in which people learn for a vast range of sectors;
– Armed Police Response: Step into a mix of virtual and physical worlds to experience a unique free-roam simulator system;
– Firefighter Investigation: Step into a fire investigation virtual training environment with Leicestershire Fire & Rescue Service;
– Firefighter Training: Feel like a real firefighter with the full-immersion VR firefighting training system, FLAIM Trainer.
Simon Williams, Chairman, Clarion Defence & Security, said: “One of the challenges our exhibitors face is how to make the equipment and the technology that they have ‘real’ to the end-user – and the end-user is absolutely critical because they are ones who will ultimately judge the value of the equipment and technology they are being faced with. This partnership with RiVR will help enable that and give our exhibitors the ability to convey their message through the use of virtual reality, and doing that is a new adventure for IT²EC and a new departure from the defence events industry.”
Alex Harvey, Creative Director, RiVR, added: “At RiVR we have always prided ourselves on being at the forefront of technology for the training industry, and after attending the event in 2019 as an exhibitor we were very keen to create a Technology Lounge at IT²EC 2020.
“This allows visitors to have hands-on demos with cutting edge virtual environments and learning systems. We have hand-picked technologies that we predict are going to be very important in the coming years.”