We hosted an event this morning that was basically a bunch of people sitting around watching NASA TV until there was confirmation that New Horizons was at its closest point to Pluto.
The program itself was pretty basic. A slideshow presentation with some interactives. We raffled off a 3D printed New Horizons model. That was really cool.
My favorite part of the whole thing was just that we did something at all. I think people like to gather for celebrations, and the stranger the occasion the more interesting the crowd.
I remember the night I heard Osama Bin Laden had been killed I ran to the World Trade Center with my camera to see if anything was going on. There were hundreds of people there. I kind of couldn’t believe it.
We really weren’t sure what kind of crowd we were going to get for an event as obscure as the Pluto Flyby. It turned out we had about 80 guests and 20 or 30 staff members. The guests were mostly Members with their families. That’s the crowd we usually get, but it was still unexpected.
As things were winding down I did take a minute to stop Tweeting and just look around. Take in how nice it was to be with like-minded people as history happened. I hope we have an occasion to do it again soon.