For this year, we’ve decided to depart from our normal overarching theme and instead embrace everything we love about the number nine. Nine has significant meaning in a variety of mathematical, scientific, cultural and spiritual pursuits. Nine is the last simple number in base ten systems and serves as a transition between units and forms. In various spiritual practices, nine represents accomplishment, fulfillment, and evolution to a new phase of being, often with self-reflection, creativity and wisdom. In some languages is even loosely translated as “to look back upon.” This year’s event will both reflect on our growth so far and look to the future. We discuss a variety of interesting, enlightening and even silly ideas for implementing nine in our newsletters, and will be incorporating them into our art, stages and event layout. We hope you enjoy some of our ideas and they inform or inspire your participation in this year’s event.