Here are some activities that are ideal for reaching adult audiences:

• Set up and staff an exhibit table at a local hospital, doctors’ office, senior center, or shopping mall with the Dana Foundation’s free handouts. Print and share our fact sheets and puzzles.
• Ask your local library to organize a Brain Awareness Week display with books and reference material about the brain or offer to set up your own display.
• Coordinate a lecture or panel discussion. Consider choosing a theme and organizing several talks on related topics.
• Broaden the reach of your lecture or panel discussion by streaming it live on your website or social media. Hold a webinar instead of a “live” event to draw a larger audience outside your geographic area.
• Organize a science café in a casual setting such as a coffeehouse or pub and feature an engaging conversation with a neuroscientist.
• Coordinate a music, dance, or theatrical performance and follow it with a lecture or discussion on creativity or music and the brain.
• Create traveling displays or interactive exhibits on the brain and present them at community centers, libraries, shopping malls, and other public spaces.
• Organize a brain fair with hands-on activities and experiments, poster presentations, health screenings, and more. Invite local colleges/universities and disease advocacy groups to participate
• If your organization is a research facility, hold lab tours for the public to inform and excite them about the research being done in their local community.
• Hold an open house to introduce your organization’s work to your local community.
• Organize an exercise program and follow it with a lecture or discussion on the brain benefits of exercise.
• Coordinate a workshop for school teachers on a brain-related topic.
• Organize a film festival featuring movies about the brain. Some popular films include Awakenings, Memento, Inside Out, and A Clockwork Orange. Follow each film with a brief lecture or Q&A session with a brain expert.
• Partner with a science museum to present exhibits, demonstrations, hands-on activities, and experiments about brain structure, function, and diseases and disorders. Find out what programming they may already have available on the brain.
• Team up with local businesses to sponsor classes and workshops for employees to raise awareness about brain function and fitness, brain diseases and disorders.

For detailed information about events that have proven successful in past Brain Awareness Week campaigns, visit Reports.

For tips on organizing events, visit Planning Public Programs for Brain Awareness Week.

Be sure to share your activities by posting them on our Calendar of Events!