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The Conference in the Eyes of Participants
A " tremendous success", " one of the best conferences of its kind", " hard to beat", " I have to commend you for the success of the Conference, the choice of site and the high quality of the sessions". " I found the sessions very well organized and relevant to my work", " I took away some valuable information, advice and new contacts", " the best conference I've attended". Those are just a few of the comments made by participating journalists on the evaluation form. The organizers received positive feedback throughout the Conference. For example, American journalists said, " Usually when we attend an event of this kind in North America, we already know everybody. Here there are lots of interesting people we’ve never met." Professor Bruce Lewenstein of Cornell University, who has attended every World Conference of Science Journalists, said, " Sometime when I attend a conference I get the feeling the organizers have more or less lost control of the event and don’t know which way to turn. Here, everything’s under control. You get the feeling the organizers have a solid grip on things." David Dickson, former news editor at Science and Nature magazines and now Director of SciDev.Net spoke for the vast majority of participants in writing: " The success of last week's World Conference of Science Journalists augurs well for the future of the profession. […] Australia's science journalists have a hard act to follow. Last week — somewhat to their own surprise — their Canadian counterparts managed to attract a full house of 500 colleagues from across the world to Montré al for the 4th World Conference of Science Journalists. There they were exposed to three days of stimulating talks, debate and discussion about the state of their profession." Jim Cornell, President of the International Science Writers Association, qualified it simply as " an extraordinarily successful meeting". Eighty-five percent of the science journalists from developing countries, who had received a grant from CIDA, IDRC, Foreign Affairs, or the Conference, said they were able to inform their colleagues in industrialized countries about their situation and needs. Over half used the Conference to lay the foundation of a regional or national network or to join the World Federation of Science Journalists. Half found new outlets and publishers for their stories, and over three quarters discovered new resources and widened their network of contacts. African science journalists in particular took advantage of the Conference to get together and establish a pan-African network of science journalists. Accomplishments The 4th World Conference of Science Journalists gave Quebec, Canadian and international science journalism a strong boost. a) In Quebec In Qué bec, the Conference enabled the Association des communicateurs scientifiques du Qué bec to recruit 20 new members. It also provided Agence Science-Presse with very promising contacts for an eventual role in French-speaking Africa; discussions about funding are now underway with the Canadian International Development Agency. Agence Science-Presse’s collaboration with SciDev.Net during the Conference may continue in the future and help APS with its projects of international scope. The Conference was the venue for the first General Assembly of the World Federation of Science Journalists1, which will have its headquarters in Montreal, with Radio-Canada providing free office space in its building on René -Lé vesque Boulevard. The Board of Directors includes two Quebecers: Past President Vé ronique Morin and Executive Director Jean-Marc Fleury. Numerous reports on private-sector and academic Quebec scientists were produced and distributed across Canada, Asia, Europe and Africa (see Exposure section below). b) In Canada The Canadian Science Writers’ Association recruited 59 new members in the three months leading up to the Conference. Some ten science journalists from Denmark, Germany, Great Britain, Holland, South Africa and Sweden visited research centres in Saskatchewan and Ontario before coming to Montreal through an initiative of the Department of Foreign Affairs. c) Internationally The Conference’s most spectacular results were probably on the international level. The enthusiasm generated by the quality of the Conference completed changed the attitudes of the science journalists who were the most sceptical about the value of a World Federation of Science Journalists. One after another, American, British and continental European journalists publicly admitted to their colleagues from around the globe that their strong scepticism had turned into enthusiasm. The stock of goodwill and cooperation built by the Conference led to the first General Assembly of the World Federation of Science Journalists, and Montreal as the chosen headquarters. A Board of Directors made up of highly prominent journalists was elected, and Finance and Program committees were formed. Many national and regional associations of science journalists announced their intention of joining the Federation. The 4th World Conference of Science Journalists set five main goals. The grant-recipient journalists from developing countries filled out an evaluation questionnaire that provides some idea of the Conference’s success in attaining its objectives.
Exposure The 4th World Conference of Science Journalists received extensive media coverage even before it began. Websites around the world such as Asianet (Xinhua News Agency), SciDev.Net, CORDIS, EurekAlert, China Economic Net, Kerala News, P.M. Magazine Medientipps (Germany), REDNova, Yahoo! Finance, CFJE online (Denmark), Science Communication, PR Newswire Europe, CNW, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, International Trade Canada, PSI-COM along with those of numerous science journalist associations promoted the Conference. In Canada The Toronto Star, The Ottawa Citizen, The Gazette, La Presse, Cyberpresse, The Edmonton Journal, The Winnipeg Free Press, Le Devoir, The Times-Colonist (Victoria), The Windsor Star, The Vancouver Sun, The Kingston Whig-Standard, The Sault Star, and The Calgary Herald published one or more reports on presentations or announcements at the Conference. The event was also the focus on two reports by Radio-Canada’s Les Anné es lumiè re (October 10 and 17) and one by CBC Television (October 5). Across Canada, many university newspapers covered the event, including University Affairs, Le Journal de l’UQAM and Le fil des é vé nements of Laval University. In India, numerous dailies carried one or more of the half-dozen reports filed by the Indo-Asian News Service correspondent. Stories were also published in the South African magazine Business Day. The reports gave tremendous exposure to the work of Professor Pierre Guertin at Université Laval and the Quebec-based Victhom’s bionic leg. The SciDev.Net and Agence Science-Presse websites gave the Conference daily coverage; with SciDev.Net publishing a dozen original reports. The work on the Arctic by Professor Louis Fortier of Université Laval was the focus of articles in Le Monde on October 27, as well as in at least ten Canadian and Quebec newspapers, including one in the daily Le Devoir. The Montreal Conference website is now a prominent landmark for anyone interested in science journalism. A Google search for " science journalism" produces 3, 220, 000 hits with the Conference site as the fifth link from the top. And six of the ten links on the first page of a Google search in French for " journalistes scientifiques" lead to the Conference! (The reports cited here are only those for which we’ve obtained copies of the articles. Moreover, we know that other reports have been written or are forthcoming, and we will continue efforts to obtain them.) Statistics of Interest
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