After the impromptu, but successful experiment in webinaring earlier this week, and after consultation with a few of those most interested in the concept, I’ve decided to proceed with the Brainstorm concept. Right now, all sessions are limited to 100, but I’m hoping to be able to expand that to 500, especially in anticipation of some of the more popular open events planned. All 100 slots were registered for the test, and most of those registered showed up at some point in time during what ended up being an hour-long session.
The annual cost will be $20 per month, which will comprise at least one closed Brainstorm session per month, plus additional sessions both open and closed. The closed sessions will be between 90 and 120 minutes, and will be comprised of a single main topic, which will usually be announced, plus two secondary topics that will be selected by that month’s panelists. Single sessions will cost $25, but until we get the annual ticket confirmed and set up, it will be $20 per month for everyone. Seats for Brainstorm May are available now and can be reserved at Castalia.
The first open event will be an interview and Q&A with Martin van Creveld later this month concerning his excellent book A HISTORY OF STRATEGY. The second one will be in June with William S. Lind and will address cultural 4GW as well as his forthcoming THE 4GW HANDBOOK and a certain novel whose deceased author he is representing.
As for the closed events, I will announce the three panelists after we set a time and date for the first one, which will take place in the next two weeks. The best time for me is around 7 PM EST, and it doesn’t really matter which day, so if you plan to attend and you have an opinion, let me know in the comments here. Over half of the 100 spots have already been claimed, so if you’re inclined to participate, best to jump in before they all fill up.
To address four of the issues raised by the experiment, 1) the documentation says the panelists can see the questions, but I want to test to confirm that this is true, 2) there is no audience-to-audience chatting feature, 3) the irritating chimes were caused by people entering and leaving the session and will be turned off next time, 4) a transcript will be provided to all attendees and annual Brainstorm members within two weeks of the session. I do not plan to make transcripts or recordings of the closed events generally available, but transcripts of the free events will be available for purchase from Castalia for those who are interested in them.
The lead topic for May Brainstorm is going to be a discussion of a new hypothesis of a disease class and how it relates to some soon-to-be published research to which I happen to be privy. It’s a matter of particular interest to me and quite possibly to more than a few people here as well. I’d prefer to have one or two of the panelists have either medical or scientific backgrounds, so if you’re registered for the May event, you fit that description and you’re willing to control a mike, please email me and let me know.
I should assure those not participating that this will have very little effect on the blog, as most of what I intend to discuss in the closed Brainstorm sessions are the sort of things that cannot be reasonably discussed in an open, lightly moderated medium such as this one. And everyone is welcome to attend the open sessions, assuming that everyone < 500.