Brainstorming content workshop

Friday 23 Jun 2017, 09:30 → 11:00 Europe/Zurich

510/1-032 (CERN)

Contribute ideas for future CERN editorial content.

As a focus, there are the quarterly meeting minutes, the editorial workplan and the comms strategy.

Brainstorming content – 23 June 2017

Attendees: Kate, Corinne, Matthew, Harriet, Stefania, Iva, Cristina, Julie, Sarah, Jacques, Daniel, Sophie

[All ideas taken on board and are listed below. The words "no" and "but" were not allowed - what will follow are discussions about priorities and which ideas to take forward]

Updates

• October: ISOLDE 50^th
• Babymind
• ProtoDune
• AD – Startup of ELENA and GBar
• MEDICIS – need footage and pictures before it starts – collaboration with HUG? Local angle? Media event with photo agencies and local media?

Human stories

• All the “hidden” jobs at CERN (transport, outreach, engineers, technicans) – non-physics careers
• The best photos and anecdotes from people at CERN
• Yearning for new physics – what happens in a field with little hope – hook in footage from the 1960s video
• Any angles other than science/tech e.g. the angst of searching, growing up as a physics student
• Push scientists not just “CERN”
• https://theconversation.com/ style – invite opinions from our community
• What are scientists fired up about?
• What an experimental physicist really does – day in the life
• Why do you study physics? Voxpops
• Profile/Podcast of the Fidicaros
• Action: James/Marilena: History project – Fidecaros and Jack Steinberg to be top of the list for interviews
• Letter of note – letters from the archive
• More real and rough
• How many students do we train and where do they go?
• What didn’t work – the failures and what scientists learnt from them
• The emotional aspects (the people behind)
• I work at CERN (touch on all sectors not only physics and engineering)
• Action: Harriet and Julie to feed these ideas into #IWorkAtCERN – maybe aim for once a month a human story.

Impact / Knowledge Transfer

• What aerospace and particle physics technologies share
• Surface-coating technology
• Why fundamental physics is important
• Cryogenic technology and its applications
• Superconductivity outside CERN in Industry and applications from CERN development
• Accelerator-based techniques for isotopes – Global shortage of radioisotopes – CERN is helping. Action: Anais R to check with Manuela
• AAA – pharmacy alumni. Ana feels video is too much a sales pitch for company
• Top 10 things built at CERN that are used elsewhere / things you use that you didn’t know came from CERN. Good content for Les Autumnales. Action: Kate to follow up with Anais R
• KT stories
• Fun facts
• Space-related projects
• CERN’s contribution to society – use theory of relativity no application clip from 1960s video and say how now it does with GPS

Evergreen

• CERN in popular culture, the science behind popular culture
• Dark Matter
  • Why do we call dark matter dark? (Google keyword)
  • What are tritium and californium and what do we use now? (Google keyword)
  • Dark matter and the Andromeda galaxy (collaboration with NASA?) (Google keyword)
  • “Call of duty” dark matter bomb (Google keywords)
• Antimatter bomb – refresh the Angels and Demons content
• Geek travel guide (need to be aware of visits) (Google keyword)
• What is a sigma?
• What is an inverse femtobarn
• Particles histories (e.g. alpha, yukawa, CKM, neutrino masses etc)
• We put it on mugs and t-shirts – the Lagrangian
• The 4 forces
• Parameters of the Standard Model – dissecting it – under the bonnet
• Bullet points – fast content
• How much does it cost to build CERN / Find a Higgs (Google keyword)
• Game of theories
• What would future colliders look like? AWAKE, other options other than circular colliders. CLIC, FCC – managing expectations
• Data from HR statistics
• Root (Google keyword)
• Firsts at CERN photos/video/archive
• Questions – What scientists are looking for? Will we find anything?
• What happened to LEP, where are the interesting places that the bits ended up
• Action: Harriet to take these on board when reviewing evergreen content

Social/External channels

• Write more general content on the social media posts
• More humorous content on social media
• Make profiles on dating sites – Tinder, OKCupid / lonely hearts column about the experiments
• https://medium.com/ philosophy and science by people (not generic “CERN”)
• Pitch to established podcasts e.g. In Particular people should pitch to mainstream podcasts. Action: Kate to follow up with In Particular people.
• Pitch stories to lifestyle magazines. Action: Kate to follow up

Video

• Parodies of well-known styles e.g. DIY, recipes
• True facts (like Mantis shrimp https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5FEj9U-CJM)
• CERN explains … (a series)
• XXX in 60 seconds – potential podcast/broadcast collaboration content too?
• Hidden places at CERN (e.g. Noemi’s tunnel video, the ISOLDE tunnels)
• 1 second every day film (e.g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtgzTr8iopk)
• An alien/child/weasel returns from a trip to CERN and talks about what he saw. Use drone footage, follow some physicists and other characters
• TED-ED style animations
• Cartoons and hand-drawn animations
• The journey of a proton from the bottle to the LHC (showcase the existing content)
• Animations for AD – Aegis, GBar, Alpha-g
• Animation to explain MEDICIS
• Reply to some of the questions from social media
• Videos with more general content, not only specific science, physics experiment
• What is a particle? Voxpops series (Jeff Weiner is working on an article about this) What colour is a proton? Is it round?
• Supersymmetry – what is is? Who can explain it the best?
• Action: Kate to discuss with Ana and Paola to think about next steps and prioritize

Methods / Different ways of working

• More physics press releases
• Bring AccNews and EP newsletter more in line with Courier. Action: Matthew to follow up with Panos
• Put impact brochure elements online – impact of CERN on Society. Plan it in a campaign style format. What content, when, what (video, animation, infographics) to develop around it
• Put LHC FAQ brochure elements online
• Find more channels to reach students and teachers with dedicated content. Instagram hashtag? Targeted Facebook posts?
• TVs e.g. RTS, Euronews, Facebook Lives, YouTube
• Infographics