Monday, November 1, 2010

Science for Community Leaders: CERF 2011 Special Poster Session

New Approach to an Old Challenge—Your Ideas Welcome!
Holly Greening, CERF 2011 Conference co-Chair
hgreening@tbep.org




(originally published in Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation Newsletter, October 2010, Vol. 36, No. 3, p. 6)


Communicating to decision-makers about estuarine and coastal science findings
and current topic status continues to be recognized as an important objective of
CERF—and is probably one of the more difficult tasks to implement.
The Conference Core Team is developing an idea, which evolved during
discussions with CERF Board members and staff at the Daytona Beach Museum
of Arts and Sciences (MOAS). MOAS leaders are enthusiastic about the upcoming
CERF conference in Daytona Beach; CERF 2011 will be the largest scientific
conference the city has hosted. MOAS sees this as an opportunity to promote the role
of arts and science in the community. The MOAS membership roster includes many
local decision-makers and successful business leaders, who actively support the arts
and sciences in the Daytona Beach area. They are interested in partnering with
CERF 2011 to create an event that engages their membership and our scientists in a
meaningful and enjoyable way. The Director and Curator of MOAS also believe that
their members would be interested in being invited “inside” the conference and
in interacting with CERF’s scientists and managers as they work.
Our concept is to convene a special poster session, in conjunction with a
scheduled evening poster/social event, entitled, “Science for Community Leaders.”
The MOAS membership will be invited to attend and talk with our conference
attendees in an informal social setting, which will be contained within the
main poster hall. Invitations will also be sent to other local and regional leaders
(nearby National Estuarine Research Reserve directors, National Seashore director,
Florida Water Management officials, college presidents, etc.). The invitees
would be initially welcomed at the special poster area, and would be encouraged
to view posters throughout the poster hall and to talk to all of the presenters
available that evening.
Both invited and contributed posters will be included—and this is where we
need your help! We will be encouraging CERF participants to prepare a poster
on an important coastal topic (oil spill impacts, hurricanes, marine spatial planning,
urbanization, climate change, etc.) or case studies addressing these and
other topics of interest to coastal community leaders.
For this special poster session, the CERF Conference Team will waive the ban
on being the primary author on only one presentation; the abstract fee for this
poster session will also be waived. We will also be providing guidance on poster
presentations for the public (more pictures and graphics, fewer words).
If you are interested in providing input and/or submitting an abstract for a
poster in this special session, please contact CERF 2011 Co-Chair Holly Greening
at hgreening@tbep.org. We welcome your ideas and comments—and look
forward to a lively new venue for communicating coastal and estuarine science
to local decision-makers.

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