Sponsor Registration Information

Thank you for your interest in supporting the 2020 Southeastern Planetarium Association (SEPA) conference to be held June 2–5, 2020 at the Indian River State College Hallstrom Planetarium in Fort Pierce, Florida. It is through the generous support of industry leaders such as yourself that we are able to continue offering planetarium educators these excellent professional development opportunities year after year. We invite you to review the 2020 SEPA sponsorship levels and conference benefits. We are grateful for your financial support as well as the expertise you provide and share with delegates.

Unlike many conferences in the past, we are excited to share that our site offers a unique opportunity for vendors to be at the center of the conference. The majority of paper sessions, workshops and meals will be held at the Indian River State College Kight Center for Emerging Technologies, and the vendor area will be located in a very spacious conference hall in the heart of it all. In addition to this benefit, buffet meals will be served beside the vendor area where you will find yourselves deep in the midst of conference proceedings!

In order to improve your dining experience, we will allow vendors to visit the buffet twenty minutes before the conference delegates. IRSC staff is available to watch over your exhibit area during the meals if necessary.

The exhibit hall will not be open during the last full day, Friday, in order to allow sponsors to attend paper sessions or meet privately with delegates. Note that this means tear down must be completed by Friday. You can remove any equipment located in the Planetarium later by prior arrangement; the theater is available throughout the weekend following the conference.

Exhibit Hall

The vendor hall is roughly 2500 square feet, with a high, domed ceiling that can easily accommodate inflatable domes. Exhibitor spaces are 6×8 or 8×8 feet and come with a six-foot table and two chairs. Each inflatable dome space will count as two (2) 8×8 foot blocks; these spaces do not come with a table and are reserved for inflatables/demo domes only. If you would like to bring a dome larger than 16 feet in diameter, contact conference host Jon Bell to see if this is possible. Additional charges will apply and be determined based on the amount of extra space used.

Sponsors may begin setting up at 1:00 p.m. on Monday, June 1, 2020. Your equipment and other material may be shipped at any time prior to the conference to:

Indicate on each package that it is for SEPA Conference 2020.

Dome Session:

Time in the Indian River State College Hallstrom Planetarium is limited. Only those presentations that require use of the dome will be scheduled in it.

The Planetarium theater is a tilted (12-degrees), 40-foot diameter, Spitz dome with 74 epicentric/concentric (unidirectional) seats and five (5) wheelchair-accessible spots. The front of the theater has a small, gently sloped stage area. There are no steps or terraces in the theater.

The theater contains a Spitz 512 planetarium and a 2K Digital Projection X-Vision digital video projector with a Navitar fish-eye lens; we’re currently using Uniview 3.0. The digital video system is mounted in front of the Spitz 512 housing, and in front of that is a presentation console. There is also an inset video projector with access to the internet. Cove lighting and console/automation installations are by East Coast Control Systems and Paul Stearns. There are two control areas or consoles for the 512 system and the Uniview theater, in addition to GUI controls by Paul Stearns that allow tablet interface with videos, the 512 controls and cove lighting. To simplify video content submission, we will be running full dome video demos from an external computer, the maximum resolution for our video system is 1600×1600. Please send video content in MP4 or MPEG format to Katherine Hunt at spacekat1220@gmail.com.

Contact Jon Bell to arrange for setup/test time in the dome at jbell@irsc.edu.
The Planetarium will not be running school or public shows during the conference, so access is excellent. Times can be arranged ahead of the conference, starting Monday, June 1.