CSICOP invented the skeptics’ conference. Over the past four decades, beginning in 1976, it sponsored dozens of memorable conferences, many in association with major universities and some of them in other countries with international cosponsors.
After a seven-year pause, the conferences resumed in 2011 under the rubric CSICon. The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSICOP’s new name as of 2006), now a program of the Center for Inquiry, is the sponsor. Previous CSICons took place in New Orleans, Nashville, and Tacoma. The latest, CSICon 2016, held October 27–31 at the Excalibur Hotel in Las Vegas, brought together close to five hundred scientists, scholars, and skeptical investigators from the United States and around the world in a lively exchange of ideas. This special conference section of the SKEPTICAL INQUIRER offers some flavor of the presentations, a few vivid examples of what those who were there in person experienced. Elsewhere in this issue, several feature articles and my conversation with James Randi are based on conference talks and events, with more to come.
—KENDRICK FRAZIER, Editor