News about the future of Autoptic
Autoptic will be holding its next festival in 2018, not 2017 as originally planned.
We are writing today to inform you that, after much internal consideration and external conversation, the Autoptic board has decided to postpone the August 2017 Autoptic festival, which will now be held in 2018. While we are still working to determine the exact dates of the festival in 2018, we thought it would be best to inform you of this change now, since we know many of you were planning on either applying to exhibit at or attend the show in August.
As many of you reading this already know, Autoptic is run by a small, 9-person, all-volunteer board that have, for the past 5 years, dedicated their time, talent, creativity and hard work to the festival. Each member is personally and professionally committed to the mission of Autoptic, that mission being to celebrate and connect makers and enthusiasts of DIY creative culture. Our biennial festival was simply the most visible outcome of that commitment and labor.
Over the past several months, however, 6 of our board members have each been presented with exciting professional, creative and personal opportunities that have understandably taken their focus away from their volunteer work with Autoptic, eventually compelling them to step down from the Autoptic board. Their enthusiasm for their new creative endeavors is a testament to their love of the arts and independent culture. We here at Autoptic couldn't be more thrilled for them personally, nor can we wait to see the incredible work they are doing come to fruition.
However, with two-thirds of our board moving on to other projects, the remaining members of Autoptic feel that in order to put on the best show possible, postponing our festival until 2018 will give us the time we need to assemble new board members, reorganize our plans and redouble our efforts to put together a great experience for both our exhibitors and attendees.
After the wonderful experiences of putting together the Autoptic festival in 2013 and 2015, this was not an easy decision for us to make. We were very much looking forward to seeing all of you in 2017. But we do feel that with the extra time this deferment will afford us, we will be able to ensure that our next show in 2018 will be the best Autoptic yet.
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Thank you, Autoptic
