Portland Float Conference

 

August 17-18, 2013
Portland Center for the Performing Arts 
1111 SW Broadway, Portland, OR ‎
(503) 248-4335

 With a Workshop for Float Tank Centers on the 16th

Join us in August of 2013, as the world’s leading experts on float tanks gather once again for the Portland Float Conference, the world’s largest conference for the floatation community.

The Portland Float Conference will cover the latest research in floating, present new medical uses for floatation therapy, and offer fascinating talks and presentations by industry professionals, researchers, and floatation enthusiasts.

For more information check out 
floatconference.com

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2013 Schedule...

 

16th August 2013


10:00 AM - 7pm
Float Center Workshop Begins!

  • For Workshop Guests Only
  • The Float Center Workshop is an intensive day of training, covering everything you need to know to start and run your float business.
  • When we started Float On, there was almost no information or advice for people looking to run a float tank center. We have spent the years we've been running continuously experimenting and improving our center, learning first hand what works and what doesn't.
  • This workshop is the information we would have loved to know when we were getting started. We will be covering everything from float tank maintenance, to float center construction, to float-specific marketing techniques that have worked for us.
  • We'll be bringing in experts who are familiar with the float industry to cover specialized fields, such as insurance, legal coverage, and SEO marketing.

8:00 PM through midnight 
Portland Waterfront (at the Newport Bay Restaurant) Welcome Party

  • Join us for a casual get together to kick-off the conference festivities!
  • We'll be at the Portland Waterfront, a nice part of downtown Portland right along the main river that goes through town.
  • We'll be meeting at the Newport Bay Restaurant, a restaurant that is actually floating on the river! We've reserved a few more casual bars and restaurants in the area as well.
  • Feel free to come in and clink glasses with us at any point in the evening!

 


17th August 2013


Starts at 10:00 AM

  • Day 2: The Conference Continues!
  • We'll gather back together for another exciting day of exploring The Void.


10:05 AM
Flotation REST in Integrative Behavioral Health 
by Dr. Peter Suedfeld

  • Peter Suedfeld is one of the original researchers of REST (Restricted Environmental Stimulation Therapy) in addition to being the founding President of IRIS (the International REST Investigators Society). He has decades of work studying flotation, and is a large advocate of promoting the scientific exploration of the tank.Peter will be here to discuss the nature of medical research, ranging from alternative to integrative practices, and where REST fits in to this wide spectrum of applied medicine.

 

11:00 AM
The Float Industry: A Salty Tale by Graham Talley Ashkahn Jahromi

  • Graham and Ashkahn, two of the Float On co-founders, have been spending an increasing amount of time with other float centers. Consulting, answering random salty questions, and even hosting this conference.
  • For anyone involved in the float industry, it's impossible to not feel a sense of excitement as you see what is happening around you. More float centers are opening, more manufacturers are building float tanks, more news articles are coming out about floating, and (most importantly) more and more people are hopping in the tanks.
  • Floating is gaining momentum. We are all lucky enough to be a part of this movement at such exciting stage. We get to not just see an industry grow around us, but shape the movement of its growth. Where can we go from here? Where SHOULD we go? Where will we go? It's up to us.

 

12:00 PM 15 Minute Break Below the Cortex:
The Experience of Floating and our Thalamus by Dr. Jeffrey Bruno

  • Jeffrey Bruno, Ph.D., will present a brain-based model to better explain the phenomenology of floating. How do we account for the sometimes dramatic shifts in consciousness, alterations in somatic awareness, resolution of pain, access to new cognitions and emergence of memories or images that frequently occur during the floatation experience?
  • New evolutionary perspectives on the role of the thalamus, our primary sensory switchboard, support numerous healing applications for floatation and R.E.S.T. tools. Additionally, Dr. Bruno will share on the precise use of light and sound to accelerate emotional processing and their potential and beneficial uses with floating.


1:00 PM
Bringing Float Tanks to Libraries by Chaz Rollins

  • Chaz Rollins will be here to speak on the implications of expanding library services to provide the flotation tank experience. Libraries primarily focus on providing opportunities to experience information, but this one-sided approach creates an imbalance: information overload. Libraries can restore this equilibrium by providing a zero-information environment.
  • Libraries have traditionally valued things like privacy and solitude when learning and understanding. Sensory deprivation can serve as a catalyst in cultivating some of libraries' higher values like problem-solving, sense-making, and creativity.
  • Furthermore, this approach would expand floatation into the cooperative system of libraries, which is community funded and available to all.


1:15 PM
Float Your Way To Euphoria by Nick Janicki

  • Nick Janicki will be here to debut a video on his new float tank manufacturing company,Float Pod Therapies.
  • You'll get a special peek at his entirely US made float pod that is just hitting the market.

 

1:30 PM
Lunch

  • We'll have a true Portland experience as we have lunch outside in the park, catered by local Portland food carts.
  • A big thank you to Float Pod Therapies for helping us provide this lunch for everyone.

 

3:00 PM
Float Dance Project by Sophia Emigh

  • In collaboration with Float On, seven dancers jumped back into the void to see what would emerge, using the only tool we had when we came into the world.
  • Over the course of May 2013, each dancer received six 3-hour float sessions. At the end of the month, each dancer choreographed a solo movement piece that in some way reflected their float experience. They then worked with a videographer (who also floated) to create a short movement film that captured their choreography.


3:30 PM
The Benefits of Magnesium by Dr. Russell Marz

  • Dr. Marz, an associate professor of nutrition at The National College of Naturopathic Medicine, has spent the last several years studying the effects of Magnesium on the human body. He will be at the conference to present a comprehensive overview of both the nutritional and therapeutic uses of Magnesium.
  • Most adults are Magnesium deficient now-a-days, and Dr. Marz will explain the dangers of leading a Magnesium deprived life.

 

4:30 PM
Anxiety and the Float Tank by Dr. Justin Feinstein

  • Dr. Feinstein is currently in postdoctoral study at the California Institute of Technology researching the effects of fear on the human brain. Anxiety is an emotion that has gripped us all, and in such a bustling world, it is an emotion that is subconsciously being triggered in us all the time. This trigger, even at low levels, can cause prolonged and systematic health risks for the human body. In more extreme cases, fear and anxiety can lead to serious conditions such as Panic Disorder and PTSD.
  • Float tanks provide the body with an environment to effectively counteract this persistent stress, and as such can be an answer to many of these ailments. Dr. Feinstein will be here to explore this use of float tanks, and give a neurological overview of why floating can be useful tool to fight anxiety.


5:00 PM 15 Minute Break
Swedish Floatation Association

  • The Swedish Floatation Association was not able to make it out to the conference this year, but has created a short video to share with us what has been happening in the world of floating over in Sweden.
  • Moving towards getting float tanks covered under national health care, creating float tank center certification programs, and collaborating with funded float tank research are all part of the productive workings of the Swedish Floatation Association.

 

5:30 PM
Self-Directed Evolution: Hacking the Float Experience by Anthony Natale

  • Anthony is one of the Float On crew, devoting his time to contemplating the physiology and the philosophy of the float tank. With a training in bodywork, martial arts, philosophy, painting, and plenty of time in the tank, Anthony seeks to actively explore the unique reaction between the human body and floatation.
  • Anthony will speak on progressive aspects of somatic and consciousness research and thought, including Theta-Nautics and Evolutionary Acts setting the stage for a radical rethinking of the organism as evolutionary vehicle.

 

6:00 PM
Biofeedback and the Theta State by Briant Nierstedt

  • Briant has many years in the field of biofeedback, studying brainwaves and their associated effects. He has worked extensively with the practice of Alpha-Theta training, bringing people into conscious Theta states.
  • He will be at the Float Conference to explain the frequency of brainwaves we have come to know and love, the Theta waves. In addition to giving a break down of what Theta waves are, and how they effet our body, Briant will explore the possibility of using training to enhance the theta experience during a floatation session.


6:30 PM
The Somato-Spiritual Practice by Stephen Johnson

  • Stephen Johnson has worked as a Psychiatric Nurse for 27 years, and conducted a private practice as a Structural Integrator for over 20 years. He is an expert in anatomy, specializing in Fascial Anatomy, as well as being a Bio Somatic Movement educator.
  • Stephen's presentation will focus on the re-definition of spirit as aspect of self, how this relates to cultural manifestations and a renewal of the sacred as essential to survival, this will be directly related to the float experience as a somato-spiritual practice.


7:00 PM
End of the Conference

  • As sad as it is, the conference must end sometime.
  • We'll sweep up the confetti, say our goodbyes, and all get together to see if we can break the record for world's largest group hug.


 


2012 Conference Video's

Ashkahn Jahromi

Glenn & Lee Perry

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