Public Event Advisory Board – 2 December 2024

Present: Francois Briard, Arnaud Marsollier, Mélissa Gaillard, Pascale Goy, Paola Catapano, Cristina Lazzeroni, Jessica Sri Sukamsri, Andreas Juttner, Antonella Del Rosso, Dante Larini, Zoe Nikolaidou

Public Event Advisory Board – 2 December 2024

Present: Francois Briard, Arnaud Marsollier, Mélissa Gaillard, Pascal Goy, Paola Catapano, Cristina Lazzeroni, Jessica Sri Sukamsri, Andreas Juttner, Antonella Del Rosso, Dante Larini, Zoe Nikolaidou

1)        Presentation of the new Public Event Advisory Board Mandate

The new format of the Board is accepted, the Public Event Team is available should there be any suggestions or questions.

Cristina Lazzeroni is to be added to the list as Member

A proposal was shared to invite 2 External people to the Board. We are open to suggestion from the Board for names

It was noted that we shouldn’t invite professionals being involved in the events we propose, as the goal is to have an objective point of view (risk of conflict of interest).

2)        Feedback on past events

Dark Matter Day 2024

-              Overall positive review, interesting format and link between two scientific fields

Danser avec l’évolution

-              Well-performed dance and interesting topic. It was noted though that it will take some time to establish CERN as a host of such artistic events, as the visibility of our diverse offer still needs to be developed. It was shared that for this to happen, more connections and partnerships need to be made with the region’s cultural scene.

-              It was also shared that it is not necessary to add a discussion after artistic performances, as was the case in this event (and caused several people to leave before the end).

Al Gore event

-              Widely seen as successful. François it to check the number of CERN participants

-              Based on the success of Al Gora, an Idea from Mélissa is to target once a year a very high-level speaker and invite them to CERN

3)        Super Quantum! season

The planned season was presented, including the concept of Sparks! 2025. No major issues were flagged and the Board endorses it.

For CineGlobe: Dante and Zoe to check for subtitles in order to understand the target audience

For Sparks!, we need to take into consideration that sponsors wanted to have a say in one of our speakers.

An annual contract is made with most of the sponsors.

Sparks! is now merged with the season. The CERN & Society Foundation will therefore seek funding for the entire season. A brochure needs to be shared with them ASAP so that they can start fundraising.

An extraordinary meeting will be organised in January to discuss Sparks! in more details

4)        Events to be considered

Trip CERN (Antigel Festival 2026):

-              positive feedback taking into consideration the heavy logistics and a slightly big budget. The budget however was seen to be justifiable as it is the price to pay for our own creation, which would mark a milestone for the development of CERN public events.

-              It was raised that the logistical effort will be big. One challenge is to have people to arrive on time for the buses. One idea however is to have a “buffer event” so that people would wait in good conditions.

-              HSE to be involved. We would need to have the specifications of the event by summer and hold organisation meetings (like CERN70)

-              One Idea to justify such costs is also to merge CERN and external audiences, by creating an internal event in additional to the external one.

-              For Pascale, the costs are indeed high, and we would need to follow-up with her successor asap to seek additional funds.

•    If the story is about Giuseppe and Maria, we would need to inform their children.

As highlighted by Francois, the “return on investment” should carefuly be assessed (as mentioned in point 4 in the mandate of the board: “cost efficient”) as it would a priori allow “only” 240 external participants in the buses. In addition we know by experience that many CERNois will take many of these external seats, regardless of our strategy.

According to Francois, adding CERNois on foot, as proposed by Melissa, will not only make logistics more complicated but will not increase the external visibility in the end. The cost of the installation of theatre setups inside the CERN fenced domain should not be underestimated too.

The SG AV team may not be relevant to help with this event as it would take place in still-to-be-developed areas, a priori outdoor, in February. This looks more close to the CERN70 Community Event than a standard public event at SG (A/V wise).

Die Physiker:

-              Seen as a good idea

-              make sure the topic does not raise concerns about FCC

-              budget and logistics to be confirmed

-              supertitles possible in EN and FR

Binôme:

-              positive feedback

-              reasonable budget

-              good idea to involve other theatres

5)        Proposals from the board

From Paola: synergies with Swiss Physical Society and the UNIGE with astronauts for an event on 20 or 21 July – combined with the moon landing date. CERN would do an event on astroparticles. A live connection with the ISS with CERN astronaut Sławosz Uznański could be possible.

20-21 July however are difficult dates for the SG as they are Sunday and Monday, and they operate at a reduced capacity during this time. 

More information is needed to discuss the feasibility and its possible development.

6)        25-26 season theme brainstorming

Light – still a bit of time to do something on that, as Hi-Lumi will only be launched in 2029. 

Youth and Education – good link to be exploited – coherence with Cité des métiers

New European Strategy for Particle Physics – very CERN specific

It was said that Youth and Education was the most popular recommendation.