Esther Dyson’s Flight School

We now have dates as well as a co-sponsor for Flight School 2008. It will take place in Boulder, Colorado, June 4 to 6 (Wednesday afternoon through Friday lunch). After the workshop, those who dare can  take a Zero-G flight together (separate registration required).

This year, courtesy of co-sponsor Imaginova, I’m expecting a few more people - which should give the discussions even more resonance after the fact. In particular, I’m looking for people who want to get together and build things - not just new companies, but new markets and new ways of doing things.

In particular, I’d like to bring in some people who can start solving the ATC problem - not by lobbying for permission in Washington, but by implementing new technology that works in secondary markets.

And I’d like us to talk more about those secondary markets: What are the opportunities in retail, in training, in online services, as well as in the operation of aircraft.    

On the space side, we’re looking for a few more intrepid investors.. Let me know of any prospects! The opportunities are there in tourism, in research, and yes, in sales to governments.

here’s a preliminary list of discussion sessions (along with talks by certain interesting figures). I’d welcome comments on appropriate participants, tweaks to the sessions or suggestions of new sessions.

• The air-traffic control challenge: Growing up around an old model
• Air taxis: What have we learned so far?
• Air-charter economics: Can they last?
• Safety, reliability and innovation
• Environmental issues: Facing the facts
• Finance: Where the money meets the clouds
• Insurance and legal issues
• Sizing the commercial space market
• The aftermarket: Hotels, tours and training

Our lead-off speakers will include. Same here: Suggestions are welcome (except no submissions from corporate speaker bureaus!):

• Eric Anderson, President and CEO of Space Adventures
• Peter Diamandis, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Zero-G Corporation
• Dan Gerrity, CEO of Naverus Corporation
• Eric Haseltine, Managing Partner of Haseltine Partners LLC (formerly with the Directorate of National Intelligence and Walt Disney Imagineering)
• John Higginbotham, Chairman of SpaceVest
• Ed Iacobucci, President and CEO of DayJet
• Vern Raburn, CEO of Eclipse Aviation
• Andrew Steinberg, Attorney-at-Law, Former Assistant Secretary of Transportation for Aviation and International Affairs and Chief Counsel of the Federal Aviation Administration

And we hope our participants will include:

You!

You can comment below, or e-mail me privately at edyson@boxbe.com.  (You’ll get a challenge, but if you put Flight School in your subject line I’ll fish the message out of the Boxbe waiting list even if you don’t take the challenge.)

 For the more formal information and registration info, go to….

http://www.aviation.com/flightschool