Yes, well you missed my point as well.

You could have ask for more about the convention, but instead ask more about the dirt. It has nothing to do with the Mars Society or Zubrin. There are other organization in the world. It was given to me when I asked people if they had read Cowing's book and their opinion on it. Instead of giving opinions on the book they told me stories of Cowing and what they thought of him. Most of the folks I asked don't generally think of themselves as members of the Mars Society or friends of Zubrin.

On the convention and location:

The Palmer House Hilton was built just after the Chicago fire and was one of the first "fire" proofed hotels in the world. It has incredible architecture of that era and is well preserved. The red lacquer room where the plenaries where held has alcoves at the four corners with two Doric columns and plush benches inset. Palmer is about four blocks from the lake.

The folks who talked at the plenaries such as Pohl and Whitesides were interesting and informed. Pohl has a new book coming out soon and continues to be an interested participant in his 80s. Whitesides debated with Zubrin the Aldridge Commission's usefulness. Zubrin thinks it will be lost to history not an important piece of work. Whitesides thought it had some merit and quoted a few passages which if implemented might help to move space exploitation and exploration forward.

Possibly the two most interesting plenaries was Admiral Steidle and Sam Burbank's. Steidle talked about a spiral development plan for the infrastructure needed for human exploration. He also talked about working closely with the Mars Society and other like organizations to make the plan work. Sam Burbank talked about his new feature film currently called Human Exploration of Mars based on Zubrin's First Landing. Lots of back room talk was interesting as well.

Oh and the MER robot guy Squyres made the case for sending humans to Mars.