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Inevitably, in any budding laser enthusiasts’ career, a suggestion
may be made to explore the online forum Photonlexicon.com. Often
within a few introductory posts, the new person is urged to consider
attending a unique event called SELEM.
The brainchild of ILDA member Adam Burns back in February
2006, SELEM (pronounced Sah-leem) is the South Eastern Laser
Enthusiasts Meet which takes place every August in the town of
Newton, North Carolina. From its humble two-day beginnings with
about 10 people, to now being nearly a full week and the largest
gathering of laser enthusiasts in the U.S., SELEM is truly the
Mecca for anyone with an interest in lasers. In an effort to provide
something of value to all interests of lasers, it now encompasses
three venues: a 500-seat auditorium plus classrooms, a large school
cafeteria, and a gymnasium.
While it began life as a hobbyist event and a chance to associate
real faces with people formerly only known by screen names, SELEM
is also regularly attended by various industry professionals. It has
drawn people from as far as the Netherlands. The ILDA Laser Safety
Officer class has been taught there for a number of years, and many
people who passed the ILDA class have come from SELEM.
While manufacturers are welcome and regularly attend, it is not a
trade show or sales show. They’re welcome to talk about or show
new technology as Pangolin has done every year but, it’s more about
having an opportunity to enjoy the lasers.
The Newton-Conover Auditorium is the focal point for
choreographed material. Graphic, abstract and beam shows run
constantly from mid-day Wednesday until the wee hours of Sunday.
New this past year was the addition of “Abstract Friday” where both
new digital consoles, as well as old-school analog consoles have
been employed for live performance of abstracts. The auditorium
also features a mix of ion and solid state lasers.
The gallery is often used for more specialized presentations of what
people are working on with lasers such as synthesizers, holography,
and more recently, UV laser reactive glow-in-the-dark abstracts.
The auditorium also houses a buy/sell trade area as well as the
ion lasers work room. There are often a large number of ions being
tinkered on throughout the week.
The cafeteria serves as the hub of hobbyist activities both laserrelated and otherwise. As we tend to dabble in interesting
pursuits besides lasers you may very well find musical Tesla coils,
LED wall programming, Sterling engines, manufacturing liquid
nitrogen for making ice cream, 3-D printing, RC cars, helicopters
and quadcopters. (We have both indoor and outdoor racing quad
tracks.) There’s also an area for people to show-and-tell their various
experimental laser projector builds.
The gymnasium serves as the world-class display known as
“ClubSELEM” with multiple trusses filled with dozens of projectors and
beam rails, some up to 30 watts. Several control stations allow people
the opportunity to try their hand playing a wall of projectors and
accompanying live DJ’s into the wee hours of the morning. There is
also non-coherent intelligent lighting moving heads, LED video walls,
and control stations for people to learn more about DMX/Artnet.
There is a daily schedule of activities and presentations and
shows content going on in all areas that’s finalized prior to the
event so people can plan their day accordingly. There are talks and
educational components going on in the afternoons on Wednesday
through Saturday.
One of the best parts of SELEM is the people of the town of Newton
itself, many of whom we have interacted with for years and who
always enjoy having the opportunity to come out and see what new
things we’ve been up to in the previous year. It’s not uncommon
to see the local police stopping by to relax in a bean bag chair in
ClubSELEM and enjoy the show. Between DJ’s one evening an
officer yelled the best line ever, “I’m taking someone to jail if you
don’t start another laser show!”
If you have any interest in lasers at all, you owe it to yourself to
throw caution to the wind and come experience SELEM. As I often
tell new people, there are certain life milestones that tend to stay
with you forever. Things like your wedding day, the birth of your first
child, and your first SELEM. It’s up to you to rank the order
bradfo69
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Brad did an outstanding job on this--he hit all the high points--
--make it happen for you--
IF you want the best LEM experience start NOW to make SELEM 2020.
When I got home from my 1st SELEM (aug2010) I planned and held my own STEXLEM in Nov.
small and just one night BUT we had a great time,,
The one this Aug can still be attended-- you can get there anytime it is still going--pay your $179 (no shirt)
Just pay and sign the waiver--leave whenever you want---BUT to be a 'good' attendee one needs to be either there for set-up OR take-down Sunday---BUT BOTH is the way to do your first SELEM and make awesome new friends--THEY bring the gear-set it up-=and pack out at the end==they still pay to go and get no extras from bringing a ton of PJs-- everybody pays--including 3 DJs who could be elsewhere doing a paying gig
NEWEST edition of Photonic Spectra is out- cover and big article on Lasers--
AND has the best article on Lasers ever--will find and post a link ASAP.
I have, in the past read everything I can find on Lasers--
This article has much I never found--anywhere else.
lots more to read at PLEX where SELEM and many other LEMs are organized..
like: SCALEM=UKLEM-NWLEM-NYCLEM-CALEM FLEM and more..
HAK
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