Event(s) Summary
Number of Events Organized During Brain Awareness Week:
2 major events
Year:
2017
Type of Events Held:
- Conference/Forum
- Exhibit
- Lecture/ Briefing
- Other
- Other: Large public presentation AND a full Neuroscience Day
Target Audiences:
- General Public
- High School students(9-12)
- Other
- Patients & Caregivers
- Professionals
- University students
- Other: everyone we could reach for the public lecture. For Neuroscience Day
- Other: we reached out to other research disciplines at the U
- Other: clinicians and community
Approximate Number of People Reached:
Combined approx: 670, but we also had a feature news article and other media that reached people too
Details of Major Brain Awareness Week Events/Activities:
Your Dazzling Brain — Keep it Balanced 2nd year in the Dazzling Brain series during BAW. This year’s three-part presentation focused on the brain basics of habits and addictions. “Sold out” weeks before event. Major media attention Objective: continue to educate and inspire public about brain research and its importance to everyone. We absolutely reached our objectives are are already brainstorming on next year’s topic Neuroscience Day The day — geared toward researchers, clinicians and community includes research posters from many areas of the UNM Health Sciences Center; a poster competition for junior investigators that looks at scientific rigor, clarity for a non-expert audience and more. Awards are given in three areas: Basic Science, Clinical, Community Research. The day also includes a major lecture on cutting-edge neuroscience (Robert Knight from UC Berkeley this year); a panel that brings together community experts and researchers; and small-group opportunities for exchanges between disciplines and expertise to discuss current research or potential projects. Objectives — there are many and this day has been a popular event at the University of New Mexico for the last few years. Goals — short term cross-discipline communication is achieved. We’ll see if we continue to inspire younger researchers to stay in the field, to stay in New Mexico, work across disciplines and strive to ensure their communication is accessible to non-experts.
Event Planning & Publicity
Publicity Methods Used:
- Calendar Listings (newspapers, radio, television)
- Emails
- Posters/Flyers
- Press Release/Media Advisory
- Social Media
- Other
Other Publicity Methods:
Public lecture: we partnered with a well-known NM TV personality who has a health segment on the biggest TV station in the state. We used him as a moderator for the evening and the Q & A following the short presentations Lectures: professionally videotaped, uploaded to YouTube; people love them
Which of These Publicity Methods Was The Most Successful?
Resources
Of the Dana Foundation publications/resources distributed at your event(s), if any, please indicate the three most popular. Please choose up to three. If "other," please indicate below:
- It’s Mindboggling!
- BAW Pencils and Erasers
- Staying Sharp: Successful Aging and the Brain
Other Dana Foundation Materials Distributed:
- Everything on the list. We also use throughout the year to promote brain research at all related events; when BAW comes around that helps build audience
Which BAW graphic materials did you use in publicizing your events?
- BAW Logos
Feedback & Keys to Success
How do you feel BAW participation benefited your organization and the local community?
BAW participation is a wonderful way to rally attention to the importance of brain research. We actually have more activities throughout the year and the BAW helps focus and serve as a culmination to our other efforts. The many resources from the Dana Foundation help us achieve these goals and — especially in the community — people love to learn more and more about their brains!
Please share any suggestions or lessons learned that may help others plan future events:
Our public Dazzling Brain series takes quite a bit of effort; we use three different speakers from different disciplines and work with them extensively to shape a cohesive presentation that flows well from one topic to the next. The result is a tremendously popular event that for the last two years has exceeded the free venue capacity. The event is a collaboration of numerous groups and is extremely high visibility and appreciated — it’s worth the effort and makes the subject exciting and understandable to a lay audience — it spotlights the importance of brain research in a way that people really like
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