Preparations for first Fascination of Plants Day in Europe (18 May 2012) through EPSO "Zündsatz Group"

This day shall be a Europe-wide initiative bringing back understanding and appreciation of plant science and plant research to the lay public; an initiative which CPPS members may want to be involved with. The organizers have provided the following information:

Planning and accomplishing the Fascination of Plants Day will be based onto two pillars:

i) The broad pillar:

As many plant science and research institutes as possible start to prepare for their individual activities for that day. These can be open lab days, public discussions and/or press conferences with selected scientists, farmers, plant breeders, environmentalists, ecologists, etc. Of course, all EPSO member institutions are kindly asked to actively attend. Beyond, other institutions like plant breeding companies, farmer associations, learned societies, etc., should be involved. Contacts to some learned societies in DK, UK, FR, DE, PL and CZ are already affirmed.

ii) The central pillar:

Under the umbrella of EPSO, the Fascination of Plants Day will be concertedly announced to the main multipliers of newscasts in the respective European countries, i.e. the nation-wide newspapers and selected broadcast stations as well as the Discovery Channel. In addition, local newspapers and radio/TV stations shall be approached in a city or area where a participating institution is located. Finally, facebook and other social networks shall be "programmed" for advertising the Fascination of Plants Day .To make all information about the Fascination of Plants Day's initiative as appealing as possible (information should be in the form of press releases, press kits, bills, posters, etc.) a prominent person is to be sought who should be someone very well known to the European public. This person then becomes the patron of the Fascination of Plants Day. Optimally, somebody from entertainment industry or another VIP should be engaged. We are looking forward to have suggestions from you!

A professional designer will be approached to draft a logo and a corporate design for the Fascination of Plants Day, which has to be consistantly used by all participating institutions. Further, a roadmap for all single and consecutive activities will be prepared and distributed to all EPSO members immediately after the EPSO General Meeting in Paris mid of June.

After the General Meeting, all work will start and hence, we are very happy if the Fascination of Plants Day - Working Group could get some more members. Optimally, we would like to have at least one contact person from each European Country (non Europeans are of course also kindly asked!), not at least because we need native speakers from the given nations who translate all Fascination of Plants Day info into their mother tongues! At present, the working group consists of Heike Mikschofsky (DE), Joachim Schiemann (DE), Manuela Dahinden (CH), Franziska Humair (CH), Luca Wacker (CH), Lynley Brown (NZ), Emma Timewell (UK), Dee Rawsthorne (UK), and Tristan Bunn (UK).

For further information and to register interest in participating, please contact Dee Rawsthorne (dee.rawsthorne@nbi.ac.uk; UK contact) or Jan Kellmann (jkellmann@ice.mpg.de; central coordinator of the Fascination of Plants Day).