| Elizabeth Romanaux September 11, 2010 |
Face the Fiction
Saturday September 11, 2010
7:00 p - 10:00 p
Panera Bread
1300 State Route 17N
Ramsey, NJ 07446
For those arriving early, please join us at 7pm for our open
mic-style Whispers From Beyond from 7-8pm. This group meets
on the second Saturday of each month and spotlights guest
speakers from SF and genre related fields of interest.
This group meets on the second Saturday of each month and
spotlights guest speakers from SF and genre related fields of
interest. This month we welcome Elizabeth Romanaux,
representative of the Liberty Science Center and the NJ
Association of Museums, who will be talking to us about work at
the museums, creating exhibitions, and so much more.
For additional information click Borders Ramsey's website.
Saturday September 11, 2010
7:00 p - 10:00 p
Panera Bread
1300 State Route 17N
Ramsey, NJ 07446
For those arriving early, please join us at 7pm for our open
mic-style Whispers From Beyond from 7-8pm. This group meets
on the second Saturday of each month and spotlights guest
speakers from SF and genre related fields of interest.
This group meets on the second Saturday of each month and
spotlights guest speakers from SF and genre related fields of
interest. This month we welcome Elizabeth Romanaux,
representative of the Liberty Science Center and the NJ
Association of Museums, who will be talking to us about work at
the museums, creating exhibitions, and so much more.
For additional information click Borders Ramsey's website.
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Face the Fiction Presents:
Elizabeth Romanaux
September 11, 2010
The watchword was Science on Saturday as the Science Fiction
Society of Northern New Jersey gathered together for a little
something out of the ordinary: a presentation by Vice-President of
Marketing and Public Relations for the Liberty Science Center,
Elizabeth Romanaux. The evening started early with discussions of
Star Wars and Warhammer 40,000/Rogue Trader in Todd's
Carpool. That's right, Todd Ehrenfels, Kate Landis, and Todd Debiak
teamed up for laughs and conversation on the road, as I wanted to
make sure that everyone had a chance to have some fun.
We arrived at 6:30pm and Kate, Todd and I started setting up the
room in preparation for the meeting. During the set-up we chatted
about Cthulu, the problems with some modern SF movies, and the
decline and fall of the SyFy channel. We were soon joined by the
Spinmen: Steve and Jim Spinosa, who pitched in with contributions
on Technology and e-Publishing. Next in the room was Master Gene
McGrath, who I would have liked to chat with a bit more, but a rapid
influx of people prevented my socialization efforts. Next thing we
knew, it was 8:00 and Elizabeth was arriving and ready to start.
Like a Super Derecho blowing in across the Great Plains, Elizabeth
started the evening out with a masterful description of the Liberty
Science Center's latest premier attraction: The Baby Mammoth,
Lyuba, who is headlining the the Mammoths and Mastadons exhibit
(http://www.lsc.org/lsc/ourexperiences/exhibits/mammoths).
Elizabeth explained that she was very excited about this because
the opportunity to actually see something like this is beyond rare,
and hearkens back to her first steps in the realms of science.
Brought up in a home filled with science, Elizabeth Romanaux
wanted first to be an Anthropologist and Archeologist after
becoming enamored of the sciences due to early exposure to
National Geographic magazine. Before the age of six, her focus had
changed to Geology and Paleontology, subjects that she continued
to favor until she arrived at college and learned that she would
need a great deal more math in her background, and years of
lab-work before she could fully participate in the sciences that she so
loved. After school, she moved out to the West Coast and began a
successful career in Marketing, and eventually landed a gig back in
New York City doing PR and Marketing for a firm that dealt almost
exclusively with museums. The Liberty Science Center was not
having much success with their current advertising and PR guru,
and through a quirk of fate, the Chief Administrator was someone
who Elizabeth had babysat for in the past (small world), and said
Chief Administrator placed Elizabeth's resume and curriculum vitae
on the desk of the then VP of Marketing and said, "You owe me
one."
Thus began a career of awesome events at the Liberty Science
Center. Elizabeth recounted tales of frantically gathering the CEO of
the Liberty Science Center from Mexico City and having the exhibit
makers drop everything to build a proper erupting Mount Saint
Helens during the more recent eruption about five years ago for an
appearance on the Today Show. Explaining the facts of
environmental sciences to John McCain to help him make informed
decisions on New Jersey Horseshoe Crab issues was another cool
topic of conversation. While politicians and such are cool, some of
the celebrities that have graced the LSC were just as much fun and
fodder for discussion.
Conversation turned from the LSC itself to the concepts of Science in
the media, conservation, and a few other important issues. When
asked if she thought that there might be too many Science
Museums in the NY Metro area, she quipped that there was no
shortage of ignorance and so there should be no shortage of
education. We discussed the environmental impact of our homes
and habituation, the importance of newts, greening the house,
saving the spiders, and the importance of anatomically correct
anatomy models. Also in the mix were anecdotes about the science
courses for educators, the cool programs for Abbott District Schools,
and changes in the way that reporting is being done.
I am totally not doing this event justice. We started promptly at 8pm,
and likely would have kept going until midnight if the store was not
closing at 10pm. As it was we had to force an end to the evening
when the manager of the store very subtly reminded us that they
were closing in 10 minutes. We repaired the room in record time,
and then proceeded to chat in the parking lot until 11pm. In
addition, Kate, Todd, and I enjoyed even more discussion on the
way home, citing many interesting topics from the event before
moving the topic to how cool the rock band Genesis is.
Join us in October as Anton Strout and Ekaterina Sedia for a
discussion of Werewolves, Lycanthropes, and Shapechangers at
Borders Books & Music at the Ramsey Interstate Shopping Center
on October 9th.
(writeup by Todd V. Ehrenfels)
Elizabeth Romanaux
September 11, 2010
The watchword was Science on Saturday as the Science Fiction
Society of Northern New Jersey gathered together for a little
something out of the ordinary: a presentation by Vice-President of
Marketing and Public Relations for the Liberty Science Center,
Elizabeth Romanaux. The evening started early with discussions of
Star Wars and Warhammer 40,000/Rogue Trader in Todd's
Carpool. That's right, Todd Ehrenfels, Kate Landis, and Todd Debiak
teamed up for laughs and conversation on the road, as I wanted to
make sure that everyone had a chance to have some fun.
We arrived at 6:30pm and Kate, Todd and I started setting up the
room in preparation for the meeting. During the set-up we chatted
about Cthulu, the problems with some modern SF movies, and the
decline and fall of the SyFy channel. We were soon joined by the
Spinmen: Steve and Jim Spinosa, who pitched in with contributions
on Technology and e-Publishing. Next in the room was Master Gene
McGrath, who I would have liked to chat with a bit more, but a rapid
influx of people prevented my socialization efforts. Next thing we
knew, it was 8:00 and Elizabeth was arriving and ready to start.
Like a Super Derecho blowing in across the Great Plains, Elizabeth
started the evening out with a masterful description of the Liberty
Science Center's latest premier attraction: The Baby Mammoth,
Lyuba, who is headlining the the Mammoths and Mastadons exhibit
(http://www.lsc.org/lsc/ourexperiences/exhibits/mammoths).
Elizabeth explained that she was very excited about this because
the opportunity to actually see something like this is beyond rare,
and hearkens back to her first steps in the realms of science.
Brought up in a home filled with science, Elizabeth Romanaux
wanted first to be an Anthropologist and Archeologist after
becoming enamored of the sciences due to early exposure to
National Geographic magazine. Before the age of six, her focus had
changed to Geology and Paleontology, subjects that she continued
to favor until she arrived at college and learned that she would
need a great deal more math in her background, and years of
lab-work before she could fully participate in the sciences that she so
loved. After school, she moved out to the West Coast and began a
successful career in Marketing, and eventually landed a gig back in
New York City doing PR and Marketing for a firm that dealt almost
exclusively with museums. The Liberty Science Center was not
having much success with their current advertising and PR guru,
and through a quirk of fate, the Chief Administrator was someone
who Elizabeth had babysat for in the past (small world), and said
Chief Administrator placed Elizabeth's resume and curriculum vitae
on the desk of the then VP of Marketing and said, "You owe me
one."
Thus began a career of awesome events at the Liberty Science
Center. Elizabeth recounted tales of frantically gathering the CEO of
the Liberty Science Center from Mexico City and having the exhibit
makers drop everything to build a proper erupting Mount Saint
Helens during the more recent eruption about five years ago for an
appearance on the Today Show. Explaining the facts of
environmental sciences to John McCain to help him make informed
decisions on New Jersey Horseshoe Crab issues was another cool
topic of conversation. While politicians and such are cool, some of
the celebrities that have graced the LSC were just as much fun and
fodder for discussion.
Conversation turned from the LSC itself to the concepts of Science in
the media, conservation, and a few other important issues. When
asked if she thought that there might be too many Science
Museums in the NY Metro area, she quipped that there was no
shortage of ignorance and so there should be no shortage of
education. We discussed the environmental impact of our homes
and habituation, the importance of newts, greening the house,
saving the spiders, and the importance of anatomically correct
anatomy models. Also in the mix were anecdotes about the science
courses for educators, the cool programs for Abbott District Schools,
and changes in the way that reporting is being done.
I am totally not doing this event justice. We started promptly at 8pm,
and likely would have kept going until midnight if the store was not
closing at 10pm. As it was we had to force an end to the evening
when the manager of the store very subtly reminded us that they
were closing in 10 minutes. We repaired the room in record time,
and then proceeded to chat in the parking lot until 11pm. In
addition, Kate, Todd, and I enjoyed even more discussion on the
way home, citing many interesting topics from the event before
moving the topic to how cool the rock band Genesis is.
Join us in October as Anton Strout and Ekaterina Sedia for a
discussion of Werewolves, Lycanthropes, and Shapechangers at
Borders Books & Music at the Ramsey Interstate Shopping Center
on October 9th.
(writeup by Todd V. Ehrenfels)