SCANZ 2012 - Feb 22 - 23, Te Papa, Wellington

“21st century communications for 21st century science” is the theme for the upcoming SCANZ conference.

SCANZ 2012: Te Papa Museum on 22-23 February 2012
Tickets: $240 for SCANZ members ($300 for non-members.)

Register here.

The conference will offer a mix of high quality presentations, workshops, panel discussions and networking opportunities to an expected 120+ journalists, communicators for science and innovation organisations, scientists, academics and students. 

Full details of the conference programme will be available on the SCANZ website next week.   Topics and speakers confirmed include...

• Communicating science in a disaster – presentations and panel discussion featuring GNS senior scientist Kelvin Berryman; Environment Canterbury comms manager Katherine Trought and Christchurch Press senior reporter Paul Gorman.
• Managing messages in a social media environment – Senate Communication Counsel partner Tracey Bridges.
• Te Papa science communication through display – GNS geologist and Te Papa scientist in residence Hamish Campbell
• Education and 21st century science – Massey University Vice-Chancellor Steve Maharey will give a keynote address about how educational institutions are grappling with the changing challenges of training scientists and science consumers from early childhood through to post-graduate and beyond.
• Case Study: Communicating the 2011 Kermadec Islands Discovery Expedition – Auckland Museum publicist Melanie Cooper.
• Case Study: 1080 and muddled emotions – Animal Health Board communicators John Deal and Alan Dicks  
• Workshops on creating a crisis communication plan and using social media – by Katherine Trought and the Science Media Centre’s Peter Griffin respectively.
• Visual communications and using technology to change behaviour – Senior lecturer at Victoria University School of Design Leon Gurevitch.
• Case Study: Using Google to communicate your science – Google staffer John Bailey talks about projects such as M-Lab and OpenFlow/SDN  and how Google can enhance science communication.
• Case Study: Communicating big science – Glenda Lewis looks back and previews her communication work for the Royal Society of NZ’s 2004 and 2012 celebration of the Transit of Venus.
• The personal side of science communication – winner of the 2011 NZ Assn of Scientists Award for science communication Dr Mark Quigley, senior lecturer Active Tectonics and Geomorphology in the Dept of Geological Sciences at the University of Canterbury.

Join SCANZ for the 2012 Conference Evening Reception at the Carter Observatory and be inspired through the stories of our southern skies.

Enjoy stargazing in the Pelorus Trust Planetarium, a state of the art, digital experience that will take you on a virtual space journey, from Wellington to some of the outer regions of our own Solar System and beyond.

Over drinks and finger food you will hear the Māori story of creation and the Big Bang theory, experience a gravity well and examine the possibilities of life on other planets.

 Look through the Cook Telescope* and consider the secrets of the stars.

Cost: $70 per person

Date: Wednesday 22 February 2012, 6.30pm-9.30pm

Location: 40 Salamanca Rd  Kelburn, Wellington (via the Cable Car)

*telescope viewing is weather dependent