CONTACT has a long history.

Early on, it was a very SFish. Hard SF authors, scientists, and anthropologists would herd there and do really cool world / critter building exercises, then do a roleplaying session.

When I started going, that phase was winding down. To be blunt, the SF types and scientists had been displaced by a lot of squishy-sci types. The aliens produced were kind of silly and Politically Correct.

The Epona project, proposed by Martyn J. Fogg, would take its time, and temper lets-have-fun creative brainstorming with deep wonkish reality checks. They came up with amazing stuff.

Last I checked, CONTACT had really excellent lectures and seminars, while the COTI culture-building exercise was turned into an activity for teachers and high school students.

whaddya think?