LIVE
INTERACTIVE
PLANETARIUM
SYMPOSIUM

What is LIPS?

The Live, Interactive Planetarium Symposium is an annual gathering of professional planetarium presenters to share best practices for delivering live, audience-driven planetarium presentations, emphasizing active engagement with audience members.

LIPS’ goals include:

• Providing a participatory and practical professional development opportunity focusing on live presentations
• Offering an opportunity to network with others doing live, interactive shows
• Sharing information about available resources and products
• Sharing ideas for improving programs: content, teaching tips, classroom management, etc
• Exploring what is required to start or improve an outreach program or business

How is LIPS different from other planetarium conferences?

LIPS is not a full-dome movie festival; instead it focuses on skills and techniques for live lessons. While there are sponsor demonstrations, these are live, interactive teaching demonstrations.

There are no true “lectures” at LIPS; all sessions should be interactive. Prospective presenters: Remember that attendees are coming to LIPS because they do (or want to start to do) live, interactive lessons. This audience wants to actively take part in sessions, not observe passively.

The audience size is limited to 40 to 60 attendees, based on host capacity. For 2025, the cap is set at 60 attendees. This limit is so that all attendees participate in all events together; there are no session tracks. Limiting attendance leads to a unique sense of cohesion by the end of each LIPS.

Scholarship Fund

LIPS maintains a modest fund for scholarships, supported by voluntary donations.