2008 Annual Report
Contents
- Letter from the Founders
- Mission Statement
- Directives
- Founding Directors and staff
- Founding Sponsors
- IMERSA activities and Outreach in 2008
- Summary of significant events in 2008
- 2009 goals
- 2008 Profit and Loss
- 2008 Balance sheet
- Legal Status
Letter from the Founders
To: IMERSA supporters
From: Founding Directors
IMERSA’s first year… Looking back looking forward,
What a great first year for us all. IMERSA is now officially off the ground and taking shape, thanks to your significant effort and support. One year ago IMERSA was an idea, born of a desire to build a community of professionals working in the immersive arts. We are building on the pioneering work of previous years, but you and the IMERSA founders share a vision to take things much further.
In a few short months IMERSA has solidified into a funded, professional association. We have incorporated in the State of Colorado and applied to the US Government for designation as a 501(c)(6) nonprofit trade association. Our generous founding sponsors provided over $28,806 in startup funding and over $9,000 of inkind support.
We are greatly inspired by the range of skills and interests represented by this elite group of sponsors. It legitimizes the timeliness and importance of IMERSA when so many are willing to support the effort.
We are looking forward to 2009 and sponsoring a great number of exciting activities, including phase two of the web page buildout, an aggressive membership and fundraising campaign and an international summit and standards workshop scheduled for July20th in Albuquerque during DomeFest 2009.
THANKS to you all!
IMERSA Inc. Mission Statement
Immersive Media, Entertainment, Research, Science & Arts is a professional association founded to advance and promote the art and science of largescale digital immersive media and immersive group experiences including (but not limited to) surround digital theaters and digital (fulldome) planetarium theaters. Mandated to raise the profile and professionalism of its members, IMERSA bridges many disciplines including researchers, artists and technicians. IMERSA is a driver and nexus for communication, collaboration, experimentation, education and promotion of digital immersive media in a variety of formats and functions.
Celebrating and promoting immersive digital experiences for education and entertainment in planetariums, schools, museums and attractions.
IMERSA Directives:
IMERSA serves as a collective authority in immersive media by establishing and disseminating industry standards, guidelines and recommended practices.
IMERSA advances the industry through fund and program development for research, arts, show production consortia and other programs serving common industry interests.
IMERSA fosters professional development of its members by providing educational resources and programs, certifications and recognition of outstanding achievements.
IMERSA is a nexus for professional communication and collaboration, uniting venue operators with creative communities, researchers and manufacturers through events, online networking and an annual conference.
IMERSA promotes industry research, including the collection of market and industry statistics, historical records, original research and product evaluations.
IMERSA provides outreach to the media, the public and other trade organizations to raise awareness of and promote the immersive medium and its wide spectrum of venues, formats and functions.
IMERSA advances the immersive arts by showcasing the works of immersive artists, promoting immersive galleries and exhibitions, archiving critical works, and supporting the DomeFest fulldome art festival
IMERSA Founding Directors
David Beining
David Beining serves as director of immersive medium at the University of New Mexico's ARTS Lab and is the founder and executive producer of “DomeFest,” a global festival for the fulldome medium. David founded and directed UNM’s LodeStar Astronomy Center, one of the world’s first fulldome theaters, from 2000 - 2007.
Ed Lantz
Immersive Art & Entertainment Expert Founding Director, IMERSA
David McConville
Media Artist and Researcher Director of Noospheric Research, The Elumenati Founding Director, IMERSA
David is an awardwinning media artist and researcher specializing in history and development of domebased display environments. His research focuses on developing intuitive and interactive immersive displays for visualizing and communicating worldviews. He is cofounder of The Elumenati (http://www.elumenati.com/), a full service design and
engineering firm specializing in the development and deployment of immersive projection environments for clients ranging from art festivals to space agencies. He is also on the board of the Buckminster Fuller Institute (http://www.bfi.org/) helping to realize Fuller’s vision of a global network of Geoscope displays for visualizing Earth data. David is based in West Asheville , NC , where he is conducting independent research as a PhD candidate in the Planetary Collegium (http://www.planetarycollegium.net/).
Dan Neafus
Operations Manager, Gates Planetarium Denver Museum of Nature and Science Founding Director, IMERSA
Dan has produced engaging audience experiences for over 30 years, and continues to do so as Operations Manager of one of the finest immersive theaters in the world, the Gates Planetarium at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. He is President of the Rocky Mountain Planetarium Association and
Director and founder of IMERSA. His consulting design firm Artlight Design Inc., has provided public and performance artworks across the country.
With an emphasis on technology, Dan utilizes many tools in his work, from supercomputer graphics, to 3d sound and automated lighting. His fulldome productions have been distributed to theaters worldwide. By collaborating and inspiring fellow visionary pioneers he has charted a course for the future of domed theaters and the immersive experience.
Ryan Wyatt
Director, Morrison Planetarium and Science Visualization California Academy of Sciences Founding Director, IMERSA
Ryan Wyatt assumed his role as Director of Morrison Planetarium and Science Visualization at the California Academy of Sciences in April 2007. Prior to arriving in San Francisco, Wyatt worked for six years as Science Visualizer at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City; previously, he opened technologicallyadvanced planetariums in Phoenix, Arizona, and Albuquerque, New Mexico. Wyatt’s professional interests include making
research data sets accessible to the general public, and developing standards and “best practices” in the fulldome video community. A paper cowritten for Natural History magazine reflects on the role of modern planetariums in bringing cuttingedge science to a variety of audiences, and his “Visualizing Science” blog (http://visualizingscience.ryanwyatt.net/) provides an informal look at his ideas and opinions related to visual representations of science. Wyatt also indulges avid enthusiasms for archeoastronomy, the history of science, and intersections between art and science.
Directors, Advisors and Staff
Directors
- Judith Rubin, Communications Director
- Darcy Gerbarg, Operations Director
- Matt Fannon, Marketing Director
Advisors
- Martin Howe, Funding Chair
- Laurence Singer, Legal Representative
Staff
- Karen Roney, Treasurer & Bookkeeper
Founding Sponsors
IMERSA Activities & Outreach in 2008
Fulldome Summit and Domefest 2008
Early in 2008, arrangements were made to move Domefest 2008 to Chicago’s Adler Planetarium. knowing that many of the world’s fulldome professionals would be attending the International Planetarium Society (IPS) conference in July. 
In March 2008 we coordinated a lively and beneficial IMERSA brainstorming session at Plymouth University’s Immersive Vision Conference. This initial community discussion highlighted the worldwide reach of the immersive community and demonstrated the potential benefits of an international association dedicated to the immersive arts.
With support of IPS leadership and the IPS Fulldome Standards Committee, the Founders coordinated an international Fulldome summit to coincide with DomeFest 2008.
DomeFest crowds were at capacity and the July summit was a great success with 60 delegates registered specifically for the fulldome activities in addition to 90 IPS delegates attending as an extension of their IPS participation.
The summit was the official inauguration of IMERSA and featured a dozen speakers and a keynote address from Walt Ordway, architect of the Digital Cinema Standards (DCS).
Martin Howe (Global Immersion) conducted a fund raising drive, seeking founding sponsors from the audience. Twenty organizations recognized the importance of the request and stood up to offer their support. This was a remarkable fund raising success and provided the resources to launch IMERSA. $28,806 in cash donations have been committed as well as
significant inkind support. Each of our Founding Sponsors are recognized by their logo on the web page linked to their respective web sites.
We welcomed our first Individual Member in October after implementing web based registration and are now preparing to launch a membership campaign.
Milwaukee, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Jackson Hole
Additional 2008 IMERSA outreach efforts included a fulldome workshop at the Great Lakes Planetarium meeting in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. IMERSA and the IPS Fulldome Video Committee cosponsored the “Fulldome 101” workshop, attended by about 25 GLPA delegates and vendors and presented by Dan Neafus and Mark Peterson.
IMERSA hosted a “Birds of a Feather” gathering at SIGGRAPH with over 30 participants sharing ideas about immersive experiences. Attendees included Larry Cuba from the arts group IOTA and Carolina CruzNeira, Executive Director and Chief Scientist of the Louisiana Immersive Technologies Enterprise (LITE), an IMERSA Founding Sponsor.
The Fulldome Video Showcase V was held during ASTC 2008 at the Fels Planetarium in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This showcase, hosted by Spitz, is the longest running immersive media festival, originally launched at SIGGRAPH in 2003. A diverse sampling of fulldome content was presented that clearly impressed the audience, many of whom were new to the digital dome experience.
Taking full advantage of the opportunity, we introduced the IMERSA founders and distributed IMERSA flyers to an enthusiastic audience that included media producers intrigued by the possibilities of fulldome and several people from the giantscreen film community.
ASTC also offered an opportunity to convene a business meeting attended by Founders Dan, Ed, Ryan, and Martin, as well as Judith Rubin (IMERSA Communications Director), representatives from SCISS AB, and others. The group reviewed IMERSA project status and identified organizational priorities for the coming months.
Dan Neafus joined vendors, producers and artists from around the world attending the Jackson Hole Symposium for Applied Media Professionals (http://www.jhfestival.org/jhsymposium/), providing significant international exposure for IMERSA.
Fulldome in the Industry Press
LF Examiner, a newsletter serving the giantscreen industry, has published several articles about fulldome, digital media and recent endeavors to create technical standards. Articles were contributed by Ed Lantz, Judith Rubin and John Jacobson (White Oak Assoc.)
IPM Magazine published an article last year by giant screen film producer/director Bayley Silleck (“Cosmic Voyage”) exploring the world of fulldome media and theaters. The article was recently reprinted in the 2009 TEA Annual & Directory, published by the Themed Entertainment Association.
Blooloop.com, a webzine devoted to the attractions industry, has done extensive coverage of fulldome over the past year or so, looking at the medium, theaters, industry events and production. Contributors include Judith Rubin, Ed Lantz, Mike Spitz, Carolyn Collins Peterson, Martin Howe and Dina Benadon.
Summary of significant events in 2008
- Established legal incorporation in the State of Colorado, USA
- Established founding Bylaws Submitted an application for 501(c)(6) U.S. nonprofit registration
- Established mailing address, telephone, and domain ownership Implemented financial management systems and policies
- Cohosted the Fulldome Summit following IPS
- Solicited and collected Summit papers and presentations
- Engaged a part–time bookkeeper
- Completed an initial buildout of web page
- Implemented Webbased membership and sponsor sign up
- Collected $28,806 from Founding Member sponsorships—Thanks!
- Received a commitment of $9,000 of inkind support
- Hired a parttime Communications Director (Judith Rubin)
- Cosponsored and presented a “Fulldome 101” workshop at GLPA, Milwaukee
- Held an informal meeting at SIGGRAPH Exhibited and distributed material at ASTC
- Held an IMERSA general business meeting at ASTC
- Participated in the Symposium for Applied Media Professionals
Goals for 2009
- Establish a Director of Operations position Develop a business plan for Year 1 and beyond
- Continue phase 1 and phase 2 build out of the web page
- Publish public blog, calendar, wiki, news, press releases
- Establish a logo and branding style sheet Submit a quarterly IMERSA news column to the Planetarian Distribute an electronic monthly member newsletter
- Launch a membership drive
- Promote and support DomeFest 2009 Sponsor a 2009 IMERSA Fulldome Summit Sponsor standards workshops
- Vote in elected officers Recruit an advisory board Establish project “chairs” and volunteer project committees Populate the paper/resource library
- Participate in conferences and seminars to advance the IMERSA mission Formalize affiliation with IPS, TEA, GSCA and Cinegrid
- Initiate affiliations with ASTC, IAPA and others
Legal Status:
IMERSA, Inc. A notforprofit corporation Registered in the State of Colorado, USA PO Box 11083, Englewood, Colorado 801511108 Federal EID # 263001315 Phone #3034592940 IRS 501(c)(6) status requested and pending approval www.IMERSA.org IMERSA.org and IMMERSA.org domains held by Directors Bylaws submitted with 501(c)(6) application Credit card payment accepted through PayPal
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