Dear ASPAC Full members,
The IPC is ready to roll out the details of the SCWS 2020 that will be held in Mexico City on Dec 2-4, 2020.
It was widely agreed that SCWS 2020 will NOT be an inter-regional version of our annual conferences that are held mainly for networking, professional development and capacity-building. With the theme "Towards an Equitable Future", SCWS 2020 calls for science engagement to be deliberately inclusive in its approach in the way forward. It identifies 3 TRACKS that highlight the issues where science engagement is crucial to positive outcomes:
The Future of Biodiversity and Climate Change;
The Future of Health and Well-Being; and
The Future of Education and Work.
Participants will be leaders of institutions of science engagement. They will be required to choose a track BUT will also be exposed to strategically placed sessions where cross-discussions among the track participants will also take place with appointed facilitators.
The aim is for participants to experience in-depth discussions with experts in the tracks but also engage in the connections of the track with the other tracks to make for a fuller understanding of the issues. There will also be special sessions where the design of the venue will inspire the format of the discussions such as debates, hall of leaders, etc.
We hope that this rich summit environment will breed the most meaningful conversations that will enable leaders in science engagement to move them to act with a heightened level of care and thoughtfulness about these issues when they go back to their institutions.
In order to ensure this, the IPC agreed to a total of 350 participants for the Summit. As a result, there are expected numbers of participants from each network. For ASPAC the expected participants will be 40-44 (we have a total of 52 full members). The host secretariat will first verify the standing of a registrant that claims to be from ASPAC so we can give priority to our full members.
As a reference, ASTC and ECSITE who each have over 500 members, are expected to send 80-94 participants each.
On the next update, we will signal when the SCWS202 website is ready for registration. Right now, it has details of the date, theme and tracks.
Thank you very much for your time. Until the next update.
Maribel Garcia
The Mind Museum
JY Campos Park 3rd Ave BGC
Taguig METRO MANILA 1634
PHILIPPINES