From Dr. Larry Hass, the Dean
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It is my pleasure to announce that the Mystery School’s annual Homecoming event—the Magic and Meaning Conference—will be happening this year, and it will be ONLINE.
As the pandemic surged in recent weeks, it became clear to the School’s wisdom team that the Conference could not proceed as an in-person event this October. This was true both for health and safety reasons, but also because so many people are reluctant to travel for the foreseeable future.
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This is, of course, deeply disappointing: The Magic and Meaning Conference has been our community’s time to gather together, re-connect, and re-charge our love of magic that matters. And yet, throughout the pandemic, the Magic & Mystery School has built upon its long experience with the Zoom platform to design and deliver online programs, courses, and seminars that have achieved very high quality. For example, just last week, Jeff, Lance Burton, and I delivered two full days of the Online Lance Burton Teen Seminar. There were seventy-six teens, great teaching content, special guests, lots of breaks, and outstanding engagement from the teens. From every perspective, the program was a smash success.
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And so, we are excited to pivot the 2020 Magic and Meaning Conference into an online format. The Conference will be held Saturday and Sunday, October 24-25, 2020, from 10:00am to 4:15pm PACIFIC, each day.
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We’re pleased to announce our 30th anniversary Special Guests: Lance Burton & Jade—both of whom have confirmed they will be with us for the virtual conference!
We are planning to emulate the in-person conference by featuring online versions of its most beloved events. For example, there will be:
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— 12 Presentations (P-E-P Talks) from attendees. See the Call for Presentations here: https://www.magicalwisdom.com/about/call-for-presentations.
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— Guests of Honor and their Presentations
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— Ensemble Shows featuring members of the community
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— Small Group discussions (using the breakout room feature of Zoom)
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— Special Events, such as celebrating the 30th Anniversary of the Magic & Mystery School, the Festival of Wands (our archetypal magic tool of the year), and a Broken Wand Ceremony.
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One important benefit of shifting the 2020 Magic and Meaning Conference to an online event, is that it now becomes accessible to magicians from all over the world.
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To help make it possible for people to sign up in these challenging times, we have set the tuition for the conference at $145.00. Also, since this is an online program, people are eligible to apply for a need-based stipend that will cover 50% of the tuition. To see if you qualify, go here:Â https://www.magicalwisdom.com/scholarships.
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We hope you will plan to join us for this incredible celebration of the Magic & Mystery School’s 30th Anniversary! Sign up now at: https://shop.magicalwisdom.com/event/magic-meaning-2020-online for an incredible weekend of magic and mystery with our tribe!