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Post-Conference Report of 4th World Conference of Science Journalists




Jim Cornell, President, International Science Writers Association,
in the November 2004 ISWA Bulletin



November 25, 2004

Introduction

The 4th World Conference of Science Journalists was an unprecedented event in the history of science journalism in Quebec, Canada and even the world.

Some 620 persons, nearly half of whom were science journalists from 58 countries, attended the Conference from October 4 to 8, 2004. Thirty of the journalists were presidents of a national, regional or international science writer association. In fact, the calibre and representativeness of the science journalists gathered in Montreal was so high that the Conference included the first General Assembly of the World Federation of Science Journalists with headquarters established in Montreal.

The Conference

The 4th World Conference of Science Journalists included three plenaries, 29 sessions and panel discussions, a breakfast and three business luncheons, three news conferences, two meetings of boards of directors of science journalist associations, an exhibition, a poster presentation, side trips in Montreal and to Quebec City and James Bay, as well as several receptions including award of a genuine Canadian Ig. Nobel Prize.

The tone of the Conference was set on opening night which began with a balancing act followed by a rock band and an opera (Nathalie Choquette), and invariably peppered with speeches by the scientific advisor to the Prime Minister of Canada, the Quebec Minister of Economic and Regional Development and Research, and the president of the International Development Research Centre. The evening wound up with the unveiling of two stamps honouring Canadian Nobel Prize laureates Gerhard Herzberg and Michael Smith, the presentation of two L’Oré al Fellowships. The event was staged by a producer and crew from Radio-Canada.

That was a hard act for the keynote speakers to follow, but they succeeded and had no problem doing so given their calibre and that of the panelists.

Numerous stars and prominent personalities of science journalism around the world had accepted the organizers’ invitations: Franç ois de Closets (undoubtedly the greatest French science journalist), John Rennie (editor-in-chief of Scientific American), Jeremy Webb (editor-in-chief of New Scientist), James M. Gorman (science editor of The New York Times), Matthieu Villiers (editor-in-chief of Science et Vie), Aline Richard (editor-in-chief of La Recherche), James Watson (World Bank Chief Scientist), Richard Taylor (Nobel Prize winner in Physics), Bjorn Lomborg (author of the controversial book The Skeptical Environmentalist), Deborah Blum (Pulitzer Prize winner), David Dickson (Director of SciDev.Net), Hervé Kempf (Le Monde) and dozens of leading lights of Quebec, Canadian and world science journalism.

In all, there were 93 keynote speakers and panelists at the Conference, excluding the three speakers at the news conferences, the hosts of the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony, and those at the breakfasts, luncheons, opening night and poster presentations.

Each day began with distribution of the Conference daily newsletter produced by Agence Science-Presse. It summarized some of the previous day’s sessions and described a few upcoming ones. The series of five 4-page newsletters in both English and French is available online..

The final day (Friday, October 8) was devoted to tours. They gave 44 journalists from 21 countries an opportunity to visit the James Bay hydroelectric power station, while 27 others visited Quebec City enterprises, as well as research centres, and 46 journalists toured high-tech firms and academic research centres in Montreal.

All the journalists spoken to after returning home were absolutely thrilled by the Conference and their stay in Montreal and Quebec.

For an idea of the content of the presentations, the questions asked by participants and the discussions, read the excellent Conference proceedings prepared by Infolink and published at the Conference website.


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