This last week I had the opportunity to attend the 26^th National Space Symposium at the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs, CO. The space symposium is a forward-thinking conference put together by the Space Foundation. Featured speakers included the commander of Air Force Space Command, administrator of NASA, the co founder of XM Radio, and numerous space business presidents. The event even featured Leonard Nimoy, who I didn’t have the opportunity to meet.

They held a program for individuals under the age of 35 to attend called the New Gen Initiative. I had the unique opportunity to sit down and talk with a handful of entrepreneurs who are in the space field. The one person I most remember talking to was one of the co founders of XM radio. The three major pieces of advice that I took away from that night are 1. If you’re interested in something, keep working towards it. Take advice when it is offered and seek out a mentor. 2. Don’t be afraid to fail. Everyone makes mistakes, learn from them and move forward. 3. When moving into a new organization sit back and learn all you can rather than try to prove yourself.

While attending the symposium I learned about a couple of interesting organizations. The first one being the Space Foundation; their purpose is to bring innovative space professionals together in a non-partisan, objective and fair manner.

The second organization is the Space Generation Advisory Council who started out of the United Nations.  SGAC works on the international, national and local level to link together university students and young professionals to think creatively about international space policy issues and inject the youth point of view into international space policy creation.

The third organization but definitely not the least is the X PRIZE Foundation.  An X PRIZE is a $10 million+ award given to the first team to achieve a specific goal, set by the X PRIZE Foundation, which has the potential to benefit humanity. Rather than awarding money to honor past achievements or directly funding research, an X PRIZE incites innovation by tapping into our competitive and entrepreneurial spirits.

In all it was an incredible experience, I am very thankful for being afforded the chance to attend.