Community

Reflections on the PCST 2023 conference

The Local Organising Committee of the Public Communication of Science and Technology conference, of which I was part, evaluated the conference yesterday. I reflect on my personal highlights of the conference.

Frank Nuijens

May 25, 2023 — 1 min read

Visual summary of the PCST 2023 conference, made by Carolina Pereira Marghidan.

Yesterday the LOC of the PCST 2023 (Public Communication of Science and Technology) evaluated the conference that took place on 11-14 April in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, and hosted 700 participants. I have so many fond memories of the people I met, the conversations I had, the inspiring sessions I attended and I am proud of the big steps we as a LOC together with the PCST Network took to make the conference as inclusive as possible, true to its theme 'Creating common ground'. Some personal highlights:

💡 I am happy with the positive response that I got on my talk 'Defusing deficit thinking in science communication practise'.

💡 I am proud of the session 'Research infrastructures: connecting scientific facilities to society' that I co-organised with Marjolein Oorsprong because of the excellent talks by Tabea Rauscher (EMBL), Emma Sanders (CERN), Anton Binneman (SARAO) and Elise Brouwer (ASTRON).

💡 It was an honour and an inspiration to be a member of the LOC, which included people from all parts of the science communication community in the Netherlands.

💡 I am proud of having led the great team that was responsible for the communications of the conference: Carolina Pereira Marghidan, Marieke Baanand Barry van der Meer. And I am grateful for the help of our tireless coordinator Anne Dijkstra and co-chairs Caroline Wehrmann and Laurens Landeweerd.

💡 I still enjoy reading the visual summary that the incredibly talented Carolina Pereira Marghidan made of the conference, which can be downloaded on Zenodo.

💡 I look forward to the next PCST Conference in Aberdeen in 2025! Keep an eye on their website for updates.

Best advice from your profession

On Reddit there's a thread asking for the best advice from your profession. My advice as a communication professional, specialised in the field of science communication, would be: Remember that it's not about you, it's about them. Don’t focus solely on what you

Good communication starts with listening

What I have come to think differently about, the website Beste ID asked me and 76 other thinkers. That is that good communication is above all about listening. And thus that some scientists are at least partly responsible for the growing gap between science and the practically educated in society.

Bringing society inside the walls of scientific facilities

The Public Awareness of Research Infrastructures (PARI) three-day conference held in July 2022 at the SKA Observatory’s Global Headquarters (U.K.) discussed the science communication issues that practitioners face at research infrastructures, like community building, science diplomacy and equity, diversity and inclusion in STEM. We concluded that we need

"If you can talk, you can communicate"

Members of the association SciComNL have expressed what they consider important for the National Centre for Science Communication that is to be established. Especially knowledge development and knowledge sharing are, in my opinion, essential functions of such a body.

Read more

Best advice from your profession

Good communication starts with listening

Bringing society inside the walls of scientific facilities

"If you can talk, you can communicate"