I'm planning a conference!

I know you know, but now there are official dates and now it is taking over my life, so I feel like there should be a blog here dedicated to it!

On May 26-28, 2016, a little more than a year from now, I will be hosting the Eating Innovation Detroit conference dedicated to exploring the culture of insects as food and feed.  Daily programming will occur on Wayne State University’s campus, and nightly events will happen across the city.  

What have I accomplished so far?

• Dates are confirmed
• Space on campus is reserved
• I have an active website, Facebook page, and twitter account
• I have two grant proposals in the works to be submitted this summer that, if funded, will allow me to fund travel for international scholars from developing countries
• I have created different sponsorship levels that I will use to fundraise from university departments and other organizations
  
• I am working to secure a keynote speaker that I am pretty excited about but can't say anything yet
• Anthropology students are participating in a cricket flour back-off on April 7th of this year, which is helping me to build some relationships around the city, including Detroit FoodLab and Detroit Farm and Garden.  I am confident that we will do something cool together for 2016 as well
• I've been brainstorming a lot of program ideas including poster sessions, panel discussions, organized symposia, and maybe even pecha kucha

There is much still to do, like reserving a block of rooms at a hotel and figuring out shuttles and other transportation options, but it's coming along.  I will keep everyone updated here on the blog about how it's all going!