CERF 2011 Special Poster Session: Science for Community Leaders

Holly Greening, CERF 2011 Conference Co-Chair/Session Lead

hgreening@tbep.org

Thanks to input and encouragement from the CERF Conference Core Team and the Daytona Beach Museum of Arts and Sciences (MOAS), Science for Community Leaders is on the way to becoming a Special Poster Session at CERF 2011! Communicating estuarine and coastal science findings and status regarding current topics to decision-makers is recognized as an important objective of CERF—and is probably one of the more difficult tasks to implement. At the Science for Community Leaders session, we plan to provide a venue to encourage interaction between our conference attendees and the Daytona Beach Museum of Arts and Sciences membership.

The poster session will be held in conjunction with a scheduled evening poster/social event. Daytona Beach MOAS members 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 then would be encouraged to view posters throughout the poster hall and talk to all of the presenters available that evening.

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.

Contributed posters are encouraged on important coastal topics (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 is also being waived. The CERF Conference Team will provide guidance on poster presentations for the public (more pictures and graphics, less words).

If you are interested in finding out more or participating 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.