The 2013 FAIR Conference came to a close on Friday, August 2nd.
We were very pleased to hear fourteen presentations on a variety of topics, including Book of Mormon geography, the role of women in the Church, and the stories of those who have been challenged by doubt and those who left the Church and have returned.
Blair Hodges of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute at BYU attended most of the sessions and wrote recaps of the presentations. (He types quickly!) Although his comments do not always reflect exactly what was said at the conference, we’re grateful for his attendance and coverage, and we encourage all to review the written remarks when made available:
Blair’s notes from Thursday, August 1st
Blair’s notes from Friday, August 2nd
We set a new record for attendance this year (425 tickets issued, up from 402 last year), and we received very positive feedback from the conference attendees on our move to the Utah Valley Convention Center.
Several announcements were made at the conference, including:
FAIR is going through an extensive rebranding process. Beginning soon, we will be known as FairMormon, and our two current web sites (fairlds.org and fairmormon.org) will be rolled into a single site with a consistent look and feel.
Daniel C. Peterson announced the upcoming roll-out of The World Table, a new social platform that will allow individuals of different faiths to interact with mutual respect. The site is not active yet, but you can sign up to be notified when it’s open by visiting theworldtable.org.
Hales Swift and Neal Rappleye were given the John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award for their excellent work on the Scripture Study Aids. Outgoing vice president Allen Wyatt was recognized for his many years of service to FAIR, and Steve Densley, Jr. was named as the new vice president.
We’re grateful for all who attended this year, and especially for those who supported FAIR though generous donations and purchases at the conference bookstore. We’d also like to thank our sponsors who helped make this conference possible:
Bonneville Communications
The next FAIR Conference will be held on August 7 & 8, 2014. Mark your calendars—we look forward to seeing you next year!
Thanks Blair for your assiduous note taking
Thank you for streaming the events. I was able to keep up with some work I needed to do while watching most of the conference on the web.
The conference was fantastic and dealt with some very timely issues in a very timely way.
Where can I see the videos?
The video streaming package includes watching them “on demand” for 30 days afterward. You can buy it here:
http://bookstore.fairlds.org/product.php?id_product=1314
However, it will be another day or two before I actually have them ready. (The 30 days won’t start until they’re available.)
Will they ever just be up on Fair’s website or youtube channel? I’ve pretty much watched every video on that channel and it’s been a while since you’ve posted anything new.