Photo by Terry Lucas, 5 September 2015 Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license
Page updated 29 September 2023
We have succeeded in finding an alternative venue in Los Angeles to hold our annual meeting in person! The University of Southern California has generously agreed to host the entire meeting with no charge for the space. We will meet near downtown LA in USC’s on-campus hotel, which is not part of the labor dispute. This means you can keep your travel plans intact, and we will have the joy of seeing each other face to face (albeit masked indoors, of course). All sessions and events will take place at the USC hotel. The original program schedule remains intact. Sessions listed as hybrid will remain that way.
Although the USC hotel has plenty of meeting space, they just had a few hotel rooms available. SHOT blocked these rooms and prioritized them for the organizing team (who needs to be onsite from dawn to dusk), and for members with mobility challenges. At the moment there are no rooms available anymore in the USC hotel. So please do not contact the hotel directly (you’ll be told that they’re sold out). However, we do request members with mobility issues to e-mail the SHOT secretariat so that we can work with you to find a suitable hotel accommodation.
We are continuing to work on identifying suitable hotels and other housing options. Among others we are looking at hotels located on the Los Angeles metro. Updates will be posted on the SHOT website. Given the late change, we know that the best prices may not be available. Some of you already have had success arranging Airbnb rentals for 2-4 colleagues. Rooming with a colleague may be another
Next steps
Inevitably, this solution will require attendees to expend a bit of extra effort thinking about hotel and transportation options. Given that the vote overwhelmingly indicated that people wanted to avoid Long Beach, we trust that most of you are up for this! We are working diligently to identify hotels that are not part of the labor dispute. We will try to work out a discounted rate at one or more of these, but we can’t promise anything. We will post the list on as soon as possible, and will add as we proceed, along with any other relevant details. At that point it will be up to you to decide where you want to stay, and to act accordingly.
Of course, we can’t and won’t stop anyone from staying at our original hotel, Hyatt Regency Long Beach, if they so choose. Just be sure to look up distances and factor in LA traffic (see also the information that will be posted here shortly.
SHOT Officers
Register for the SHOT Annual Meeting: Go to the online registration form.
SHOT’s program committee and the SHOT annual meeting organizing team have been hard at work assembling an exciting program of talks and events. We are grateful for the work, devotion and enthusiasm of our PC members – Jethron Akallah (Chair), Josh Grace (Associate Chair), Bess Williamson, Diana Montaño, and Itty Abraham.
Conference program update 31 August 2023 is now available. Check it out here.
This section will be updated daily (last update 29 September)
We are continuing to work on identifying suitable hotels and other housing options. Among others we are looking at hotels located on the Los Angeles metro. Updates will be posted on the SHOT website. We do request members with mobility issues to e-mail the SHOT secretariat so that we can work with you to find a suitable hotel accommodation.
Updated 15 August 2023
At the moment Covid numbers are rising again, also in California. SHOT prides itself on solidarity and remains committed to protecting its members from exposure to Covid-19. We are especially concerned to protect those with existing health vulnerabilities, while noting that long covid has ravaged people who were previously fully able-bodied. As was the case last year, SHOT requires everyone to have updated vaccines and to mask in indoor conference spaces. The masking policy applies in principle also when presenting a paper. We’ll have a limited number of masks available; please plan to bring your own.
(see also Frequently asked questions)
SHOT also warmly invites institutions, university departments, museums and libraries, and other groups or individuals to help sponsor an event or other opportunities to show your support for the history of technology. For information, please contact the SHOT secretary’s office at: [email protected] or to Amy Bix, SHOT’s treasurer.
You can find more information on the book exhibit, various conference sponsor opportunities and advertising options here.
Visiting Long Beach: Long Beach Convention & Visitors Bureau and Tourist Centre offer discounts for participants