So, you wanted to know about Briskepticon? Sure thing.

Briskepticon – the Australian Skeptics National Convention for 2009… Where do I start? Well, I suppose I could try and start by saying that the convention ran from the 27th to the 29th of November, Friday to Sunday, at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia.

I traveled from Melbourne to Brisbane with Jason Ball, the producer of the Pseudo Scientists podcast, and we had some exciting adventures on the first day, including wandering around the UQ campus for 25 minutes trying to find Emmanuel College after our bus driver dropped us on the opposite side of the campus from where we needed to be. We eventually had to make our way to the 3rd floor of the Physiotherapy Building to get a map – the lady at the Student Services Desk was, thankfully, very helpful.

But I’m sure you don’t want to read about our lack of navigation skills in a place we’d never been before – that’s boring. What you really want is pictures! Nothing says “riveting blogging” like making other people (hopefully) jealous.

This is a photo of me (left) and Jason (right) with Kylie Sturgess, of the Podblack blog, at the Friday night drinks before the launch of Dr. Martin Bridgstock’s new book “Beyond Belief: Science, Skepticism and the Paranormal”. Let it be known now, before we look at any other photos, that I lack the ability to properly smile when I know a photo is going to be taken, hence my face. Jason, here seen after drinking a couple of beers, doesn’t seem to have that particular problem.

Here’s me and Jason sitting in the book launch room a little while before it started. Again, my face is crazy. I apologise.

Who doesn’t love conspiracy theorists? This was a flyer handed out before the book launch by people from the Adelaide Institute, a Holocaust Denial and 9/11 “Truth” organization. For those who can’t read the text at the top, it says:

We noticed that at the Australian Skeptics Conference, Dr Krissy Wilson will speak about her main area of interest, namely the creation of false memories. We ask: do some WW2 concentration-camp survivors suffer from the creation of some false memories?
We noticed that Associate Professor Tony Taylor will speak about ‘The Art and Craft of Pseudo-History’ with regard to historical ‘DENIAL’. We ask: Will he talk also about holo-hoax denial? Please send your answers to…

Now, Jason had his laptop with him at the convention, so we decided to record a couple of videos detailing what happened each day. Here’s Part 1:

Yes, that was Kylie butting in, and yes, she was like that the entire time. Welcome to the world of the Podblack Cat.

Strangely enough, she made a video too, but it was actually edited and is vaguely more interesting. I suppose you want to see that one too…

What an exciting life she leads…

Of course, not wanting to be beaten by such flashy videos, we asked Richard Saunders if we could use his awesome Flip Cam HD to record a second video, and luckily he was happy to oblige. Okay, fine, he asked us if we wanted to use it, but that’s a secondary point. We weren’t about to give up after Jason’s laptop spazzed out, oh no. Not by a long shot.

The Saturday night dinner was a great success, as you would have heard on the video – the Bent Spoon Award went to the AVN and Meryl Dorey, and the Fred Thornett Award for Reason went to Toni and David McCaffery, the parents of Dana McCaffery, a child who died of whooping cough earlier this year, who after their child’s death, stood up for vaccination and opposed the hate that the AVN threw at them from every side.

Plus… TAM Australia was announced!

I’d known for a few months, but the dinner was the time and place Eran Segev, the president of the Australian Skeptics, officially revealed it to the world. So, who’s NOT excited by this? The SGU cast will be there, as will George Hrab, Brian Dunning, Dr Karl and the Amazing Randi himself, plus other skeptics that haven’t been decided on yet.

Supposedly there was a rumour floating around that the cast of the Pseudo Scientists might be presenting something, but I’m not sure who started it…

All in all, it was a great deal of fun, especially meeting people who listen to the Pseudo Scientists podcast and meeting fans of this blog. I didn’t know that real people read this stuff! My mind was officially blown.

I hope to see you all at TAM Australia… Make sure you let me know that you read this blog if you meet me in person – I have a teenager’s ego to feed, and like the real deal, it’s always hungry.

…

Okay, feel free not to. I think feeding the ego might not be such a good idea, now that I actually consider it. You never know what could happen…