The NSS invites members of the general public, space activists, scientists, engineers, educators, astronauts, aerospace industry leaders, and government officials to explore humanity's future in space. The conference will feature a number of speakers sharing their ideas about future space missions, including Space X CEO Elon Musk, Apollo 11 Astronaut Buzz Aldrin, Orbital Sciences VP Mike Pinkston, members of the Mercury MESSENGER Team, and many others.
The conference will also have a Space Settlement Design Contest,which is an annual contest co-sponsored by the NSS and the NASA Ames Research Center. Any student (up to age 18) from anywhere in the world can participate. Interested parties need to submit a paper relating to orbital settlements, with the contest rules stating "Settlements may not be on a planet or moon...Settlements must be permanent, relatively self-sufficient homes, not temporary work camps."
The contest is serious work. A six member team from Cypress Bay High School Weston, Florida, won the context in 2013 with their 126 page paper Maui. According to the winning paper's executive summary,
...Maui tells a story, the story of how extraterrestrial colonies may grow and develop from ramshackle frontier towns to bustling cities. Maui is the narrative of mankind’s first permanent settlement in the Saturn system, orbiting the moon Titan.Prior conferences and speaker presentations can be found here. Past student contest winners back to 1994 can be found here.
Image Credit and more photo information: http://space.mike-combs.com/gallery.htm