Dr. Peterson gives his address at 2010 FAIR Conference (Photo by R. Scott Lloyd)
I thought I’d take a moment and give a shout out for The Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research (FAIR) and their 14th annual conference coming up in less than a month, on August 2-3, 2012, in Sandy, Utah. I have attended this conference in years past (which I liveblogged in 2008), and I will be attending again this year.
For those interested in the temple, topics will include “Book of Abraham, I Presume” by John Gee, and “Piercing the Veil: Temple Worship in the Lost 116 Pages” by Don Bradley, as well as many other very interesting subjects. Those that are interested in the ongoing FARMS/Maxwell Institute situation, the original founder of FARMS, John W. Welch, will be speaking about his further research on chiasmus, as will former Mormon Studies Review/FARMS Review editor Daniel C. Peterson, on the topic “Of ‘Mormon Studies’ and Apologetics,” which should be interesting given recent events.
It is significant to note that this year that you don’t have to travel to Sandy, Utah, to take part. The conference will also be available online via live video/audio streaming! You can sit in the comfort of your living room, or even on-the-go via your mobile smartphone or tablet, from anywhere in the world, and take part in this excellent conference. This news comes direct from FAIR:
This year we are providing Conference streaming for your Windows, Android, Apple, and even Roku devices. Here is a way for you to have your own FAIR Conference in your home. Hook it up to your big-screen TV and invite over your friends for a FAIR Conference event. We have updated our technology on this, so the price for streaming the conference into your home, or two your phones, computers or tablets is $15 for each day or $25 for both days. When you sign up, in the comments section please mention which device or devices you are planning on using (Roku, iphone, ipad, Android tablet, etc.)
Sign up for the two days of streaming here: http://bookstore.fairlds.org/product.php?id_product=1314
Thursday-only streaming here: http://bookstore.fairlds.org/product.php?id_product=1085
Friday-only streaming here: http://bookstore.fairlds.org/product.php?id_product=1313
Read more about the upcoming FAIR Conference here.
Update: I’ve changed some information here, as Trevor has given more details.
The streaming will actually be video as well as audio, but since Powerpoints don’t usually turn out very well through streaming, we usually just advertise audio, so as to pleasantly surprise rather than disappoint.
And we’ve actually used Ustream in the past, but this time we’re using a custom solution in order to stream to the wider range of devices and not have any ads. Thanks for the offer to help, though. 🙂
By the way, I can provide a better picture for this post, if you’d like. The one you’re using makes it look like the audience was very sparse! 🙂
Oh, one other thing – there is not really a limit on the number of streaming tickets. The quantity available is just something required by the bookstore software. We’d love to reset it if the arbitrary number chosen sells out. 🙂
Is the video going to be posted to YouTube? I’ve noticed more and more people doing that off late. (SMPT did that with their recent B. H. Roberts seminar)
The FAIR conference videos do eventually get posted to Youtube (if you look now, you’ll see a bunch under the account name fairldsorg), but we wait for 3 years because we rely on sales of recent presentations to help fund FAIR operations.
In the meantime, you can find them here: http://bookstore.fairlds.org/category.php?id_category=40
I would not expect HD unless the venue the conference is held at has made major changes to their pricing structure. 🙂
May I ask if this broadcasting is going to be done under the Church and its authorityt? Because so far nothing that comes from and through the Holy Spirit has other then a certain practical price, but never a financial price.
I’m a bit technology challenged. When you say it is available for streaming, does that mean I have to watch it at the time it is streamed or can I download it and watch it later? I so want to watch everything, but am unavailable for part of the time it will be .
That is correct. There will also be mp3 files available in the bookstore for listening to if you’d prefer. And transcripts of many of the talks get posted on the FAIR website as they become available.
OK, since we’ve had a few people now ask about not being able to watch it all live, we’ve decided to make archived content available for a limited time beginning a few days after the conference for those that pay for streaming. So if you do miss parts of it (or all of it, if you’re on the other side of the world) you can catch up later when it’s more convenient for you.