2017 ILDA Conference in Bratislava

The 2017 ILDA Conference was held 7-8 November in Bratislava, Slovakia. It was hosted by KVANT. Coherent Inc. was the Gold Sponsor of the Conference. Xtaega was Safety Software Sponsor.

Laser safety classes occurred prior to the Conference, on 5-6 November, and there was a cultural tour afterwards on 9 November. Click on the Conference Schedule for all the events.

To see the pre-Conference webpage, which includes information on the hotel and on ILDA registration and costs, go to the 2017 Conference registration webpage.

There is a separate webpage with the results of the 2017 ILDA Awards, which were presented the evening of 8 November.

2017 General Business Meeting: The annual General Business Meeting occurs during the Conference. This meeting is required by the ILDA Bylaws. At the 7 November 2017 meeting, the following actions occurred:
There were two Board of Directors seats up for election. Two candidates ran for the Board, Brian Gonzalez (who was running for re-election) and Roberta McHatton.

Christine Jenkin moved to elect the two Board candidates by a show of hands, without requiring a written ballot. The motion was seconded by Brad Billet. The motion passed; Brian returned to the Board and Roberta joined the Board.

There were two candidates for President: Brad Billet and Brian Gonzalez. A vote was held using ballots. The result was that Brian Gonzalez was re-elected as President for a second term.

Chad Timinskis was re-appointed as ILDA Secretary.

David Avery moved to ratify Bylaws changes that the Board had made since the 2017 ILDA Business Meeting in Baltimore. (The Board may change the Bylaws at any time, but the changes need to be ratified at the next Business Meeting. For reference, the changes made between 2016 and 2017 Business Meetings are here.) The motion was seconded by Zita Gillis. By a show of hands, the motion passed.

Greg Makhov moved to change the Bylaws to require Board meetings at least once per month, and that Board members who miss three monthly meetings will be removed from the Board upon missing their third meeting. (Complete text of the change is available at the Bylaws page. Look for the version that has the November 2017 changes in magenta type.) The motion was seconded by Nisha Ramnath. By a show of hands, the motion passed.

Dirk Apitz moved that the Fenning IDN Standards Technical Achievement Award be open to any person, whether an ILDA Member or a non-Member. The motion was seconded by Ben Robertson. By a show of hands, the motion passed.

Additionally, the following topic was discussed but no motions or actions were taken: Having a “History of ILDA” seminar or section at the ILDA Conference. The Board noted that they will take this up.

David Avery moved to close the meeting. The motion was seconded by Greg Makhov. By a show of hands, the motion passed.

Agenda for the General Business Meeting. Click the image for the 2-page PDF document.
ILDA Awards seminar: The ILDA Awards were discussed at a seminar. During the discussion the following topics were discussed or suggested:
Entries should require the actual music track(s) that went with the laser visuals. This would prohibit “compilation” videos showing numerous different laser effects, all overlaid by a single musical track.

Live festivals should not be in the Live Stage Show category. (In 2017, some Live Stage Show entries were or seemed to be from festivals.)

A way to offset the cost of the awards is to seek ILDA Awards sponsors.

A suggestion that judges come up with their 6 favorite shows. Members review these (online or at the Conference) and vote to pick one as the “Laser Show of the Year”.

For the Laser Jockey competition, a suggestion to use the same piece of music for all entrants. The other competitors would wait out of the room so that they would not hear, and thus would not know in advance, the music being used.

For Laser Jockey, a suggestion that each entry be around 2.5 to 3 minutes in length. By a show of hands, these were the times that got the most support.

For Laser Jockey, all entries should be done together. There should be no “regular Lase-Off” shows between LJ entries, since this was confusing to many people (“Is this a Laser Jockey show that we vote on, or just a show being played at the Lase-Off””).

Conference highlights video

For more information, visit our other ILDA websites:

ILDAmember.com: Membership database and event management, including joining ILDA

LasershowSafety.info: Information about safe laser shows, including laws, regulations, checklists, and more

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Photo credit: Radisson Blu Carlton by Flickr user Klearchos Kapoutsis, CC by 2.0, cropped from original