The venue is an academic setting, or at least in a neutral art/science setting that has some academic prestige/credibility
Free and open to the public. They serve the community not the specialists.
Recurring events: monthly, bimonthly or quarterly
Three or four presenters each evening, from different disciplines on different topics, ideally at least one artist and one scientist each evening
No theme (in a blatant case of apophenia, the audience frequently finds a theme where there was meant to be no theme).
The audience is invited to announce projects, events, etc
Gender balanced
Each university takes care of its finances (honoraria or not, refreshments or not, room reservations, etc)
LASER speakers are picked by recommendation, not by application
Gender balanced
San Francisco, Silicon Valley and East Bay: independent of the academic calendar
We encourage making public videos of the talks
We encourage broadcasting the talks over the Internet
We encourage audience participation
Note: Speakers consistently prefer longer talks, themes, panels. The audience consistently prefers shorter talks, no theme, no panel.
Events that serve the specialists should perhaps more appropriately called "Leonardo salons" than LASERs.
Themed events should more appropriately be called "Leonardo symposium".
LASERs are NOT trying to replace existing salons, conferences, symposia, etc
Download the Overview of December 2014
