Communities Happenings is a weekly post with news of interest to NPG’s online communities. The aim is to provide this info in one handy summary. Listings include tweetups and conferences which we’re attending and/or organising as well as new online tools, products or cool videos. We also occasionally flag up NPG special offers and competitions plus updates about NPG social media activities such as new accounts you might want to follow. Do let us know what you find most useful!
UK Conference of Science Journalists (UKCSJ)
The second UK Conference of Science Journalists (UKCSJ), organised by The ABSW, will be held next week on Monday 25th June 2012 at The Royal Society, London. You can find a preliminary programme here. Expect a full day of discussion and debate with three key aims:
- To discuss and debate contemporary issues in science journalism
- To encourage and provide skills for newcomers
- To promote professional development
You can register for the event here and you can also visit an archive of material including written session reports and video, audio and podcasts from previous meetings.
SoSEA
Wednesday 13th June saw the third ScienceOnlineSeattle’s (SoSEA’s) event, co-hosted by the Seattle Science Festival. The event focused on, Conversations About Our Changing Planet: Observations, Models and Implications. Three panelists gave a short, TED-style talks on “the dynamic Earth system and climate, focusing on observations, modeling, policies and linkages to energy and regional impacts in the Pacific Northwest.” You can find a Storify summary of the event here detailing the online conversation.
Screenshot of the #SoSEA audience
Each SoSEA event is live-streamed to give as many people as possible the chance to take part in the debate. You can check out last month’s livestream archive and if you’re interested in stats, here are some analytics about the use of the #SoSEA hashtag.
ScienceOnlineVancouver
The third ScienceOnlineVancouver event (#sciovan) took place on Tuesday 12th June and was all about exposing science. The topics discussed were: What is open access? Why is it important? and What can we do to make journals open access? Stay tuned for a Storify summary of the event, collating the online talk.
Each SoVAN event is live-streamed to give as many people as possible the chance to take part in the debate, so you can tune in online if you can’t attend in person. You can also check out the SoVAN website and SoVAN is also on Facebook and on Google+.
Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting
Ever year, the Nobel Laureates in science are invited to spend a week on Lake Constance in Germany, meeting a selection of young, international scientists. This year, from 1 to 6 July, over 25 Nobel Laureates and almost 600 young researchers from across the globe will gather on the island of Lindau to brainstorm ideas, discuss projects and build international connections.
As we have done for the past two years, Nature is going to be covering this year’s Lindau Nobel Laureates meeting. For regular readers it may come as no surprise that throughout last year’s Lindau conference there was lots of blogging coverage on Of Schemes and Memes. This year is no exception and we intend to bring you a full week of Lindau coverage, linking out to all of the blogs, talks, discussions and tweets surrounding the conference. You can also follow the online conversation from the official Twitter account using @lindaunobel, or by following the #lnlm12 hashtag. Find out more information here.
Nature Awards for Mentoring in Science
For its annual awards for science mentorship in 2011, Nature invites nominations of outstanding scientific mentors in the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden). Two prizes of €10,000 will be awarded, one for a mid-career mentor and one for life-time achievement in mentoring. For an introduction to the awards, see the information here and if you have any queries, please contact mentor@nature.com.
#ukscitweetup
Science Tweetups provide an excellent opportunity to meet local scientists and science communicators for an evening of chatting in the pub. Anyone in London, UK interested in coming along to #ukscitweetup, you can pick a date here. Keep an eye on the hashtag for updates.
For those interested in other Tweetups around the world, check out the #camscitweetup, #NYCscitweetup and the #UKSciTweetup hashtags for information about the next events.
Events elsewhere
Our scientific events calendars have been updated to include the latest scientific events. Make sure you check them out. Please do get in touch if we are missing any events or if you would like to contribute to this calendar or any of the other calendars listed below.