The Amazing Meeting

TAM was first held in 2003, attracting around 150 attendees. When the CSICOP conferences entered a seven-year hiatus in 2005, TAM quickly filled the gap and, with more than 1,000 attendees, developed to become the largest U.S. skeptical conference. The Skeptics Society and the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry were co-sponsors of the event, providing both financial and promotional support. People attended the conference for a variety of reasons. The Daily Beast reported that some saw themselves "as waging a broad, multifront battle to drag American culture, inch by inch, away from the nonscientific and the nonlogical". Magicians were also given a central role at the conference. The magazine The Skeptic from the Australian Skeptics gave a detailed account of all lectures from the 2010 OZ event. a final TAM was organized in his honour in July 2015. After this, the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry chose Las Vegas as the location for CSICon 2016 to fill the void. ==Paranormal Challenge==

Beginning in 2009, the Amazing Meeting also hosted a public test of The One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge for the performance of any paranormal, occult or supernatural event, under proper observing conditions. Claimant Connie Sonne in 2009 failed to find target cards in sealed envelopes using a dowsing pendulum. Mentalist Mark Edward was the only person to interview her after her test; he wrote that the room was rapt in close attention, "It was an amazing testament to just how single-minded a conference room full of skeptical non-believers could be. I dare say that even a few of the thousand assembled might have been in some way mentally rooting for Connie to win or score some significant record for her trouble. She didn't." She stated to Edward that it was not time for her "powers to be revealed" and blamed no-one for her failures, only citing that she was involved in future world-changing events. In 2013 a man from Algeria was the Million Dollar challenger. He claimed to be able to remote view objects that were held in a sealed room. He was unable to see the objects and thus failed the challenge. Tech journalist Lee Hutchinson approached the JREF after writing an article for Ars Technica about directional Ethernet cables that claim to "keep your audio signal completely free of electromagnetic interference". The MDC set up a controlled double-blind demonstration with volunteers listening to two identical recordings with a randomly selected Ethernet cable, a normal one or the cable claiming to improve the listening experience. After six volunteers, the demonstration was called off, as they were unable to select the "enhanced" cable over the common cable. The tests included: File:Million Dollar Challenge - Connie Sonne.jpg|Connie Sonne & Banachek at TAM 2009 File:Challenge 234.jpg|Hal Bidlack, Derek Colanduno and others are "viewed" by paranormal applicant for a missing kidney. File:MillionDollarChallenge2012.jpg|Performance-enhancing bracelet at TAM 2012 File:TAM11-3163.jpg|The 3 remote viewing objects from TAM 2013 File:TAM11-3125.jpg|Richard Saunders in remote viewing room at TAM 2013 File:MDC 2014.jpg|Fei Wang is applicant, Banachek and Richard Saunders are assisting TAM 2014 File:MDC TAM13.jpg |Demonstration test of Ethernet cables TAM13 - Grace Denman and volunteers - 2015 ==Special awards==

The James Randi Education Foundation presented special awards at the Amazing Meeting to people who they label champions of skepticism. Robert S. Lancaster received the 2009 Citizen Skeptic award for his work on the website Stop Sylvia which critically examines the claims of self-proclaimed psychic Sylvia Browne. At that year's TAM London the award for Outstanding Contribution to Skepticism went to Simon Singh in recognition for his successful appeal against a libel charge by the British Chiropractic Association. In 2010 at TAM London then 15-year-old Rhys Morgan received a special grassroots skepticism award from Randi. Reed Esau received the James Randi Award for Skepticism in the Public Interest at TAM 2012 for his work inventing SkeptiCamp. At TAM 2013, the award winner was Susan Gerbic for her work with crowd-sourced activism, specifically her work as the leader of the Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia (GSoW) project. The award reads: File:Andrus and Randi.jpg|Magician Jerry Andrus and James Randi TAM4 2006 File:Robert Lancaster receives 2009 JREF Citizen Skeptic Award.JPG|Robert S. Lancaster with family and James Randi receiving the Citizen Skeptic Award, July 11, 2009 File:RhysMorgan1.png|Rhys Morgan receiving the James Randi Award for Grassroots Activism TAM London, October 16, 2010 File:Reed Esau with TAM award.jpg|Reed Esau, Founder of SkeptiCamp, receiving James Randi Award for Skepticism in the Public Interest, at TAM 2012 File:JREFGerbicTAMaward.jpg|D.J. Grothe, Susan Gerbic, James Randi - Gerbic is presented with the James Randi award for Skepticism in the Public Interest ==Locations and dates==

In addition to the Las Vegas-based conferences the JREF also sponsored international TAM conferences, with the first TAM London taking place in 2009 and TAM Australia in 2010, co-sponsored by Australian Skeptics, in 2010. ==References==