Skeptics of Oz was the second large scale free to attend freethinker conference in Wichita. Following the success of Rapture Day we decided to plan for another Spring conference with more speakers across multiple days. The focus of this conference was considerably different from Rapture Day, and focused more on science, skepticism, and living as a non-believer rather than dealing with religion directly. Our speakers included Phil Plait, James Underdown, J Anderson Thomson, Darrel Ray, Abbie Smith, Carol Fiore, Phil Ferguson, and James Croft.

This event started as an Air Capital Skeptics event, but it quickly became the first event of the newly formed Wichita Coalition of Reason. We were in the early stages of forming a local Coalition of Reason and planning the billboard campaign when it was decided that the billboard campaign would work better if it was tied to a local event. The billboard campaign was quite successful and we got plenty of positive local coverage. This coverage lead to a significant surge in both conference registrations and new contacts with coalition member groups.

Just like Rapture Day, this event started with a $0 budget. During the early planning we knew we were going to need much more assistance from sponsors and donors in order to bring all the speakers we wanted. United Coalition of Reason was our largest sponsor by far. They provided the billboards as well as covering the cost of bringing in Phil Plait as one of the speakers. We also received quite a bit of help from the usual suspects, the Secular Student Alliance, the Center for Inquiry, American Atheists, and Polaris Financial Planning. While we had a large number of individual donors, the largest of these donations came from more rural individuals that really feel isolated. More than being a good source of funding, these individuals also get some of the largest benefit of these types of events. I would encourage all groups to try and reach out to those people to let them know they aren't alone.

It is vitally important to start the planning for large scale events as early as possible. We got incredibly lucky when planning Rapture Day with only a few months lead time. This time with almost nine months lead time we were almost unable to find a venue that wasn't booked. Luckily for us a new venue had opened the week we were trying to find a venue. It was an old abandoned church that had been converted into a theater and declared haunted by the local paranormal group. We couldn't have asked for a better place. The earlier planning begins the more options will be available when things begin to change, and things will always change. A second critical aspect here is to not get locked into extremely rigid plans. Having a solid framework of how things should go needs to be paired with the ability to rapidly respond to issues as they come up during execution. Rigid plans will only serve to frustrate everyone when things don't go off exactly as they should.

The event was a significant success for our groups. We had a modest growth in attendance from last year with about 175 people attending, but we had incredible growth financially and our groups now have plenty of operating funds to continue with more activities during the year as well as a better starting point for any future conferences.

Some of the most significant feedback we received was for our talks more focused on living as a non-believer. Carol Fiore's talk on Grieving without God and the story of her husband's death received a great deal of praise. This event was her first conference as well as her "coming out" officially as an atheist. I hope to see her attending and speaking at more conferences going forward. James Croft's talk about reason as a moral value was also very well received and inspired a few to come out to their families as atheists. However,perhaps the most talked about presentation was Darrel Ray's, where we all learned that ducks are very rapey animals...

Note: For other Midwest groups, Spring may not be the best time to do these. The day after Rapture Day saw the Joplin tornado, and the weekend prior to Skeptics of Oz saw a ridiculous number of tornadoes across Oklahoma and Kansas to include some significant damage in Wichita itself. It is only a matter of time before we start getting blamed for the storms.

This will be our first meeting after Skeptics of Oz! Hopefully we will have some new members! We will also be handling some overdue business of elections and setting the direction for the group! As usual there will be free food!

Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/381869208526081/

Location:
Fox and Hound
1421 North Waterfront Parkway (Near 13th and Webb)
Wichita, KS 67206-6600
(316) 634-2123

We are getting attention all over the place for our billboards and conference!

There is a great article over at The Hype promoting the conference. http://thehypeweekly.com/2012/04/05/the-skeptics-of-oz/

We have another front page story in the Wichita Eagle with some great coverage of the billboards! http://www.kansas.com/2012/04/06/2285788/billboards-aim-to-show-atheists.html

I interviewed with KWCH on the billboards as well. However, I would like to point out that I said I wanted to open these issues up for discussion, not a debate. http://www.kwch.com/news/kwch-jcg-a-call-for-kansas-atheists-to-come-out-20120406,0,1024393.story

We got some great coverage from KSN as well. They really promoted this in a true to the message way rather than trying to spin it as anything antagonistic. http://www.ksn.com/news/local/story/Billboards-spark-controversy-support-in-Wichita/yxgTqAikUUifXZ0bc0X2ZA.cspx

Finally, someone posted this over on Reddit. Go though and read all the comments of area atheists finding out they aren't alone. This is why we are doing this stuff so it is great to see it working. If you have an account go over and show some love! http://www.reddit.com/r/atheism/comments/ryb8e/this_is_encouraging_considering_were_in_the_bible/

Another Reddit post! http://www.reddit.com/r/atheism/comments/rzyyh/a_few_of_us_got_together_under_the_new_billboard/

April Skeptics in the Pub event will be at Fox and Hound. We will have the party room and there will be free food. Bring ideas for things you would like to do! (Volunteer stuff, speakers, activism, etc.) Its our last get together before Skeptics of Oz...should be interesting.

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/202858279817926/

Location:
Fox and Hound
1421 North Waterfront Parkway (Near 13th and Webb)
Wichita, KS 67206-6600
(316) 634-2123

A Skeptic and Christian debate on the topic of whether it's justifiable to believe in the Resurrection of Jesus.

Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/356250907730175/
First Evangelical Free Church
1825 N Woodlawn St, Wichita, KS 67208-1803