SiNAPSA – Slovenian neuroscience association

The main events were in Ljubljana, where we organised a number of events and activities. The main topic this year was pain and we tried to cover different aspects of this multi-layer phenomenon during our BAW. We organised Neuroscience lectures, Movie-screenings with neuroscientific discussions, Workshops (for children, adults and elderly), a neuroscientific creative contest: Faces of pain (for primary and secondary schools) and a round table discussion on the topic of pain. The 4th Slovenian National Day of the Brain 2019 was devoted to promotion of brain health in Slovenia. All BAW activities were free of charge and accessible to all members of the public. Similar to the main festival, we organized a series of lectures about pain and neuroscience outside the capital city (6 local areas). Our BAW event sparked a huge media interest in the brain and neuroscience, so many different media outlets (radio, television and written news) decided to devote time and space to the topic of brain health. Our event was therefore enriched by radio interviews “Možgani na dlani” (“Brain in hand”) and on other radio stations (Radio 94, Radio Center, Radio Si) and reports on TV shows (Infodrom, Dobro jutro, Planet TV), our BAW event was also promoted on many other radios. We also promoted events through social media and in collaboration with national and local newspapers, TV, radio, and with printed materials in schools, faculties and institutes. We feel we achieved our goals, especially promoting neuroscience to general public in an interesting and understandable way. But there is still a lot of room for improvement. We would like to attract even more people and maybe organise more events, especially outside Ljubljana.

We believe that our BAW events sparked a media coverage of news, associated with neuroscience and brain health across Slovenia. We also tried to tackle stigma, that comes with most neurological conditions. This year our topic was pain so we tried to cover and explain what pain is, why we feel it and what happens when it turns into a disorder. We had lectures dedicated to headaches and chronic pain, psychological pain and self-harm. We hope our visitors acquired a new view of these complex topics

It is important that you start promoting as soon as possible, especially if the topic sounds simple and plain. Also the media coverage and interviews tend to start only a week before or during BAW so be prepared for it beforehand since it can be challenging managing events of BAW and media coverage at the same time. It is always difficult to predict how the lecturers will prepare their lecture, so to avoid miscommunication it is best to meet with the lecturer in person and discuss the topic of their lecture. You should not underestimate the workload of small administrative tasks, because in the end they tend to take a lot of time and effort.