When: 8:00AM – 1:30PM Saturday, November 12th, 2016
Where: The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
11100 Johns Hopkins Rd.
Laurel, Maryland 20723
For Whom: This event is intended for people of all experience levels! Regardless of whether you've made 10 finds, or thousands of finds, or just have a burgeoning interest, we’ll have something for you!
The theme of this year's symposium is "Geocaching Past & Future." Keynote lectures will be presented on both the history and future of geocaching. Our symposium will commence with a plenary session, for the entire group of aspiring geocaching scholars, held in the Parson’s Auditorium. During this session, details of the event, announcements from sponsoring organizations, and a keynote lecture on the global history of geocaching will be presented.
This will be followed by a series of breakout sessions conducted in seminar format on a variety of topics held in the Howard County Rooms, and in Parsons Auditorium. For your convenience, we have inserted a map of the portions of the Laboratory that we will be using below:
Schedule of events:
8:00 - 9:00 AM Meet & Greet social with coffee and donuts in the cafeteria area. A travel bug table will be available, and officers from the Maryland Geocaching Society (MGS) and the Northern Virginia Geocaching Organization NOVAGO) will be present to answer any questions you may have about their organizations.
9:00 - 930 AM Plenary Session in Parson's Auditorium
9:40 - 1040 AM Breakout Seminars Session One
- Geocaching 101 Howard County Room #1 presented by Gr8Caches
- The History of Geocaching in Maryland - Howard County Room #2 presented by Deepdish23 (History Keynote presentation)
- Travel Bugs - Creation,Maintenance & Participation - Howard County Room #3 presented by Zekester
1050 - 1150 AM Breakout Seminars Session Two
- Caching on the iPhone using the Geosphere Application - Howard County Room #1 presented by Alzarius
- Caching on the Android Platform using C:Geo - Howard County Room #2 presented by ProdigiousOne
- Genesis of the Antietam Adventure Lab Cache - Howard County Room #3 presented by Hixon (Future Keynote presentation)
1200 -1250 PM Breakout Seminar Session Three
- Geocaching 201 Howard County Room #1 presented by Zekester
Advanced cache finding techniques for the intermediate level cacher (75-200 finds), including useful equipment, tips and tricks, and a brief discussion of issues that cause GPS interference.
- Project-GC Howard County Room #2 presented by Gr8Caches
- The Future of Gadget Caches Parson's Auditorium presented by WVTim (Future Keynote presentation)
1300 -1345 Final Presentation and Closing Remarks
- Geocaching & Avoiding the Bomb Squad - Parson's Auditorium - presented by DePhogration (AKA Dr. Kirk Yeager, Chief Explosives Scientist, Federal Bureau of Investigation)
1:30 - 1:45 Closing Remarks, Parson's Auditorium
Additional topics may be added, and this schedule is still in flux and may change, but we’ll be sure to keep this page up-to-date as things develop.
A trackables table will be available at this event, manned by volunteers from the Carroll County caching Fellowship (C3F). Please be sure to log any trackables you drop or pick up at the event in a timely fashion.
Parking:
All attendees should enter the campus through the main entrance on Johns Hopkins Road. Parking for this event is available onsite, and can best seen in the satellite image below:
Acknowledgments:
This symposium was inspired by the ongoing series of Geocaching Seminars produced by WVTim in Martinsburg, West Virginia over the last eight years. The format is largely modeled after Tim’s events, and our intent is to conduct this symposium annually in the fall, in coordination with and as a complimentary effort to Tim’s events in the spring. WVTim’s 9th Annual Geocaching Seminar will be held 18 March 2017 in Hedgesville, West Virginia, keep an eye out for that listing, we hope to see you there!
The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory has graciously granted us permission to use their facilities for this event. We request that you respect the security boundaries in place, and restrict your attendance to the areas that we have authorization to use, as noted on the graphic above, so that we are welcomed back again next year. More information on APL, including maps and directions, can be found here:
http://www.jhuapl.edu/aboutapl/default.asp
We are grateful for the ongoing leadership, support, guidance and inspiration provided by the officers and numerous members of the following organizations:
