Public Events Committee Meeting – 11 June 2024

People Present: 

• Manuella Cirilli (IPT-KT)
• Melania Coletta (HR-D&I)
• Tim Smith (IT-CEO)
• Pascale Goy (C&SF)
• Loraine Massarotti (SG-VI)
• Andreas Juttner (TH)
• Ana Godinho (IR-ECO)
• Dante Larini (IR-ECO)
• Zoe Nikolaidou (IR-ECO)

 A) Organisational aspects:

•        One of the goals of the Committee and the section is to curate events strategically and define season themes sufficiently wide to be able to adapt events to it.
•        Updates on CERN70 events: one more event left on accelerators, detectors and computers. All previous events are online.
•        Next season theme: Quantum Science (inspired by the international year of Quantum Science and Technology, confirmed on 7 June by UN).

Actionable items

1.         Identify if Arnaud (as ECO group leader and APC section leader) will participate in these meetings.
2.       Identify an EP physicist to join the Committee, Andreas made some suggestions.

B) Updates on existing proposals:

            Dark Matter Day 2024:

• date confirmed (31 October)
• A collaboration with local high schools to organise a “Dark Matter hunt” is being considered. They would play a role in the event by presenting their findings. This would then be followed by a talk
• QTI and OQI could contribute on how to bring Quantum to the event (QTI has a theory group on the matter).
• multiple events are organized by Interactions Network all around the world on this specific day, a coordination with them is therefore important
• A link to the FCC can be made, since FCC will look for Dark Matter
• interpretation will be needed
• keep the balance between gender in speakers and participants

Actionable items

1. Bing in a Quantum flavour to the event
2.   Update the committee with a more concrete proposal by September

             Danser avec l’évolution: date and speaker confirmed

•          Date confirmed (19 November)
•          We need to identify a CERN physicist for a conversation with Mr. Picq following the dance, the Paelo-anthropologist who will be present during the event. 

Actionable items

1.    Ask Rachel Bray on who could be a speaker, as she is responsible for the dancing club 
2.    Update the committee with a more concrete proposal by September

         De temps en temps

•       It is being sought if the event could be held on 11 February to celebrate the International Day of Women and Girls in Science
•       A talk following the performance could take place

Actionable items

1.          Ask for the validation of the 11 February as a date
2.          Ask for the final costs of the event

Fragment de la Creations

• We are seeking the involvement of a local orchestra and choir to be involved in the Opera
• More details need to be defined regarding logistics
• Pascale: is SGW the best place for such a performance? What is the added value? what do we want to achieve?
• Costs are high (around CHF 30K) which are high. Pascale could launch a funding campaign but time is too short
• “Cheaper” orchestra could be found to minimise costs, but quality should not be compromised

Actionable items

1.   Ask for a more modest version of the event (20 musicians instead of 37)
2.   By September, take a decision on whether to go forward or postpone it to the 25/26 season of events

            The Mysteries of the Universe:

•   The event organizer, Gian Giudice, mentioned that he was no longer interested as the theme was already mentioned during the CERN70 events

Actionable items

1.  Seek with Gian Giudice if the event proposal is still valid and seek alternatives if not
2. Seek interpretation needs

           Quantum Lovers:

•      Cannot fit in the season (would be in October 2025). However, this event would still be in the 2025 year of Quantum.
•     They wanted to sell tickets and/or set up a bar to sell drinks during the intermezzo– for us this would be a no go

Actionable items

1.          Organise logistical visit to see how they could use SGW gear as to minimise costs
2.          Seek derogation to the ban on having a bar during the intermezzo

        Le triomphe de l’enclume

• An idea was submitted to switch to another show organized by the comedian (Luc Chareyron): Les dieux et le père noël, vers une solution quantique. This would be more aligned to our theme. However: the alternative might not necessarily be D&I compatible

Actionable items

1.        Seek validation if the alternative show is appropriate from a D&I point of view

      The magic inventions

Actionable items

1.            start discussions from scratch- check with Anja Horvat (responsible for Science Shows)

C) Sparks: 

• ·Date: May-June 2025
• Format: public event + “light” serendipity framework (goal: bring experts together) Indeed, in previous editions, the serendipity seemed too difficult to follow up and we decided that it’s not on us to keep it going
• Pascale approves the idea of changing the format, she stresses the importance of the quality of the speakers
• Ask QTI and if they have an event that we could link with Sparks (Benjamin Frisch?- events in November)
• Seek collaboration with KT regarding the content and the “light” serendipity framework

D) New proposal: Event for International Women and girls in Science day (11 February 2025)     

• This event would have the objective ofinspiring careers
• Manuela suggests collaboration with expanding your horizon – Nicoletta Garetti Ana Graselino – US effort in Quantum Computing
• arrange a next meeting with Yasmine and Melania
• Generally CERN only celebrates Women in STEM (11 February )and LGBTQ+ in STEM (18 November) – another date is not really possible
• maybe combine it with De temps en temps?
• A link to Quantum should be made

E) Other items:

• A remark was shared by several members about the theme of this season’s events, Quantum, and that more should be done to align our content with it
• The diversity of the events is also important to keep in mind, as we seek to balance artistic performances with talks and panels.  
• Loraine and Pascale requested us to share with them an overview of the budget and costs of all events every 2-3 months.
• A follow-up meeting will be organized with Tim and other members of QTI, OPI and the IT department to seek synergies regarding the Quantum theme in the 24/25 season.