Skills Building Workshops and Science Briefings
Worshops were designed in consultation with scientists, media trainers and journalists, and cover science journalism skills, new media tools, and hot topics in science - providing opportunities to interview top international experts and gain access to new information sources.
Workshop 1: Reporting about climate change
Bookings for this workshop are now closed.
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Session supported by: UNESCO-HQ Paris and UK Commission for UNESCO
Summary: Good climate change reporting means understanding the science of climate, the merits of proposed solutions, and the political and social context of the problem. This workshop will cover all three areas with a focus on the needs of journalists in developing nations.
Topics range from the impacts of climate change to whether geo-engineering approaches such as ocean iron fertilisation can mitigate them. Expert speakers will also touch on adaptation to climate change, the IPCC and how it operates, forests as carbon stores, the Stern Review, and parallels between the credit crunch and the climate crunch. Participants will have ample opportunity to share their climate change puzzles (and solutions) with experts and with other delegates.
Date: Monday 29th June
Time: All Day
Venue: Royal Geographical Society
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Workshop 2: Food security and sustainability - can we avert a food crisis?
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This session is part of the Development Strand funded by DFID
Session supported by: Department for International Development (DFID); Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)
Summary: In the face of an inexorably growing global population, changing diets, conflict and economic chaos, all against the backdrop of climate change, the only certainty we have is the coming crisis in producing enough nutritious food for everyone to eat.
The UK's Chief Scientific Advisor has already called for a 50% increase in global food production by 2030 if we are to feed everyone - despite the challenges of economics, trade, transport and conflict.
This workshop features leading experts and scientists who will explore food security issues and some of the latest scientific developments that aim to deliver the required production increase. Topics include: increasing primary crop productivity, the use of fertilizers and pesticides, reducing waste in the food chain, the problem of diminishing fossil fuels on food production, the potential for damaging child development and improving food safety and nutrition.
The full-day workshop includes ample opportunities for networking, group discussions, and one-to-one interviews with food security and sustainability experts and scientists.
The workshop is organised and sponsored by the UK's main funding agency for research in the biosciences, the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and the UK Government Department for International Development (DFID).
Speakers will include leading experts and decision-makers from BBSRC, DFID, and other key players in the science, economics, and sociology of food security and sustainability.
Date: Monday 29th June
Time: All Day
Venue: Royal Geographical Society
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Workshop 3: Journalism skills
Bookings for this workshop are now closed.
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Session supported by: Imperial College London
Summary: This interactive workshop will be an opportunity for participants to exchange ideas about their own journalistic practice, as well as meeting some of Imperial College’s leading scientists. Imperial researchers will present their own work in a press office context, giving workshop participants the chance to interview the scientists and develop news angles specific to their own media organisations. By bringing together the real-life press conference environment with the reflective mode of the exploratory workshop, participants will gain insights in to their own practice whilst also picking up ideas from their peers.
Gareth Mitchell, a lecturer in Imperial College’s Science Communication group and presenter of the BBC’s Digital Planet, will lead the workshop. In his academic and broadcast work, Gareth is interested in the social media and the convergence of print, broadcast and online. Though new media will be addressed extensively in the main WSCJ sessions, this workshop should be an initial opportunity to evaluate science news values in the context of today’s rapidly evolving electronic media.
Date: Monday 29th June
Time: All Day
Venue: Imperial College London
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Workshop 4: Human disease genetics and emerging infectious diseases
Bookings for this workshop are now closed.
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This session is part of the Biomedical Strand funded by Wellcome Trust
Session supported by: Wellcome Trust. Session presented by the Wellcome Trust, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Summary: Part 1: Genetics in the 21st Century
When the sequence of human genome was announced, it had taken an international team 12 years to complete. Today, rapid advances in technology mean the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute alone could sequence one human genome per day. Join leading researchers on a journey through the human genome, exploring what makes us human and unique, and how our genetic information is providing surprising insights into what causes disease.
Part 2: Translational research for epidemiology and diagnostics: the example of malaria and syphilis
Researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, one of the world's leading centres of excellence in public health, international health and tropical medicine, explore the fight against two of the developing world's major killers.
Date: Monday 29th June
Time: Morning and Lunch
Venue: Wellcome Trust Collection
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Workshop 5: Pitfalls of reporting about clinical trials
Bookings for this workshop are now closed.
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This session is part of the Biomedical Strand funded by Wellcome Trust
Session supported by: Wellcome Trust
Summary: A drug’s life cycle, stage by stage, will form the core of this informal, hands-on workshop. Rick Turner, a pharmacologist and medical text book author from the Institute for Medicine in the Public Interest, New York, will track a drug’s development from early clinical trials to approval and beyond, pointing out the strengths and limitations at every stage. Bloomberg’s Eva von Schaper, of Munich, will provide a journalist’s perspective, sharing tips on what to watch out for, and how to get your story straight. Bethan Hughes, News Editor at Nature Reviews Drug Discovery, will help participants navigate through a clinical trial press release, and how to structure interviews so that there is no need to be an expert to understand its relevance.
Date: Monday 29th June
Time: Afternoon
Venue: Wellcome Trust Collection
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Workshop 5B: Podcasting production workshop and Science Museum Antenna Gallery multimedia consultation
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Session supported by: Supported by the Science Museum Dana Centre
Summary: How do you find a sexy science story? Even harder, how do you tell that story? (Harder yet: Convince an editor to pay you for it?) In this hands-on workshop, Science contributing correspondent (a.k.a. the Gonzo Scientist) John Bohannon will work with you to do all of the above, with tips for interview technique and recording, and editing the final podcast – all completely barebones and simple; and other multimedia thrown in. He will be joined by Science's European news editor, John Travis. Venue: The Science Museum’s Dana Centre, 165 Queen's Gate, South Kensington London, SW7 5HD [http://www.danacentre.org.uk/aboutus/location]
Date: Monday 29th June
Time: 9.30 to 15.30
Venue: The Science Museum’s Dana Centre
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Workshop 6: From Quantum to Cosmos: New frontiers in science
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Session supported by: Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics and Canada Foundation for Innovation
Summary: Session 1. The Quantum Tamers - Revealing our Weird and Wired Future
This multimedia presentation will show how the “weirdness” of tiny sub-atomic particles is being harnessed for powerful new forms of information processing and communication. Using sneak previews of the new, international documentary, “The Quantum Tamers”, panel members will explain the nature of “superposition” and “entanglement” – concepts leading toward super powerful quantum computers, secret quantum codes and even quantum teleportation. In this session, three world-leading scientists (from among the many researchers you’ll see in the documentary clips), will take your questions and describe what newsworthy research is occurring now that the weird is becoming wired, ushering in a new era of quantum technologies that may rock the world.
Session 2. The Future of Cosmology – From Theory to Experiment
Cosmology is the study of the evolution of the universe as a whole. It has become one of the most exciting fields of science as new observational technologies enable exquisitely accurate and detailed observations to be made. New generations of particle colliders, neutrino observatories, gravity wave detectors, satellites, telescopes and other devices are about to fuel all new knowledge about the entire cosmos – even dating back to the big bang.
In this session, world-leading scientists will bring you up to the cutting edge of theory and experiment. Find out what novel ideas about the nature of space, time, energy and matter are being probed. Learn why certain experimental results will be newsworthy. Understand how this research will impact our core understanding of the entire universe - and everything in it - for generations to come.
Date: Tuesday 30th June
Time: Morning and Lunch
Venue: Central Hall, Westminster
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Workshop 7: Green energy technologies
Bookings for this workshop are now closed.
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Session supported by: Joint Research Centre of the European Commission
Summary: The session will broadly cover two main questions:
1) Can technology save the world from climate change?
2) Have the recent economic problems scuppered any chances of bringing green tech to market, and should we be worried about it?
Scientific and policy experts from the UK and elsewhere in Europe will address these questions, and present some of the latest scientific advances in green energy technologies. Possible energy topics to be covered include oil, renewable energy (eg. wind and solar energy), nuclear energy, biofuels, carbon capture and sequestration, energy distribution and energy efficiency. Journalists will have the opportunity to participate in discussions, pose questions to the experts, and conduct 1-to-1 interviews.
Speakers will include up to 10 experts on the science and economics of green energy technology, drawn from the UK and Europe.
Date: Tuesday 30th June
Time: Morning and Lunch
Venue: Central Hall, Westminster
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Workshop 8: Informing attitudes and beliefs about cancer
Bookings for this workshop are now closed.
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This session is part of the Biomedical Strand funded by Wellcome Trust
Session supported by: European School of Oncology
Summary: Journalists have a key role to play in informing attitudes and beliefs about cancer and conveying important messages about this complex disease. This workshop will look at how the misperceptions and myths about cancer prevalent in different countries can lead to stigma and unnecessary suffering and death. It will explore how journalists can help promote better understanding of the scientific evidence and of patients’ experience.
Date: Tuesday 30th June
Time: Morning and Lunch
Venue: Central Hall, Westminster
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Workshop 9: New media tools
Bookings for this workshop are now closed.
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Session supported by: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Summary: This workshop will lay out the details of how to put together effective stories in the new media. Media tools to be discussed include podcasts, audio slide shows, mobile phone reports, writing effective blogs and using multiple blogs as sources. Practitioners of new media will talk about how they use these tools themselves, and how those tools are used in their respective regions of the world.
Date: Tuesday 30th June
Time: Morning and Lunch
Venue: Central Hall, Westminster
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Workshop 10: Getting global coverage for science
Bookings for this workshop are now closed.
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Session supported by: Session organised by The UK Science, Technology, Engineering and Medicine Public Relations Association (STEMPRA)
Summary: A Stempra event for press officers and journalists at the World Conference of Science Journalists.
Universities and other scientific institutions are increasingly seeking to communicate with globally dispersed audiences, either because student recruitment has become a global market or because their science impacts on other world regions (such as developing countries). This event will seek to explore how the relationship between press officers and more dispersed journalistic audiences can be made more effective, with talks, discussion and networking sessions.
Cost (including networking lunch): £50 Stempra members, £70 non-Stempra members, free for those registered for WCSJ Conference (Stempra membership: £15 from www.stempra.org.uk)
Special offer for Stempra members only: For £100 plus VAT Stempra members can attend this event and the rest of the first day of the conference, including sessions on New Media and Philanthropy, Nick Davies of Flat Earth News, coverage of evolution and creationism and networking events see www.wcsj2009.org.
To register please email events@stempra.org.uk
Session organised by STEMPRA (the Science, Technology, Engineering and Medicine Public Relations Association)
Date: Tuesday 30th June
Time: Morning and Lunch
Venue: Central Hall, Westminster
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Workshop 11: Heritage science: What next?
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Session supported by: Supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) ‘Science and Heritage Programme’
Summary: Where would we be without our treasures, artifacts and architecture, which lie at the very heart of our cultures and national identities? Join a discussion with five leading international experts in archaeology, conservation, art and heritage to discover the threats facing our heritage, from climate change to pollution and weather, and the behind-the-scenes efforts to discover more about our past before it is too late, and to preserve these precious objects and buildings for future generations to know and enjoy. They will speak about their current research and key findings as well as explaining why their work is important (i) for science, (ii) for heritage and (iii) for society both in the UK and internationally.
Date: Tuesday 30th June
Time: 9.30 to 12
Venue: Central Hall, Westminster
Producers:
Chair:
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