I’d like to thank the organizers of Skeptics of Oz for putting together such an outstanding lineup this past weekend. I’d also like to commend them on a few excellent innovations: bringing in local talent with spectacular stage presence to tackle important issues which we don’t often deal with as skeptics, staging a conversational debate panel which directly engaged people of faith, putting aside some time for comedy, and doing a live podcast event via Skype with one of my favorite Bible scholars.
I’d also like to point out that Teresa MacBain’s new talk should be mandatory viewing for everyone who has been even remotely embroiled in the atheist blog drama, so watch out for that when the videos hit the web. Also I’d like to give a shout out to fellow Edmondite and Skeptic Ink author Caleb Lack, who put together one of the best introductions to skepticism that you could hope to see. These two should get booked way more often at cons, they are very experienced public speakers with a positive message who show zero signs of discomfort standing up and speaking in front of a crowd.
As to the crowd itself, the only downside of the event (so far as I could see) is that there just weren’t enough people there to experience it live. Next year, I pledge to help out promoting the event here in Oklahoma. There are thousands of atheists down here just a short drive away.
Finally, apologies to those of you whom I photobombed in the lobby. Sometimes, I just cannot resist the urge.
More coverage: My bro Chas’ review at the AOK blog has more details, and at least one photo which may be worth seeing.
