Hi All: In response to Madhu's query--
Because most scientific organizations such as ESA work under embargoes, you are unlikely to see advance news stories about the meeting. Once the embargoes begin to lift (the day a presentation is made at the Annual Meeting), the media will begin to cover the meeting. The exception was the belly button microbe story, where a reporter broke the embargo and we lifted it for everyone; hence the story is already out well before the research is presented at the ESA Meeting. Organizations use embargoes for both scientific meetings where new research is presented as well as for their journals. The idea is to give reporters advance time to learn about the topic, interview the researchers and put together a good story. The embargo gives all reporters the same amount of time to prepare their story. For a meeting, the embargo lists on the day the research is presented; for a journal, it is usually when the journal article is published. ESA distributed several embargoed press releases to all its trusted media contacts, as well as worked with many institutions' public information offices to encourage them to send out their own releases about the meeting if they have researchers from their institution presenting in Austin. About a dozen press are registered to attend and cover the Annual Meeting and we expect more to cover it remotely. The Society's Opening Plenary and Thursday's benefit concert are open to the general public free of charge and we sent out Public Service Announcements to all local news outlets. Austin EcoNetwork did this short blog promoting the these two events: http://www.austineconetwork.com/blog/ecological-society-america-rockin%E2%80%99-austin-night-nature-acl-%E2%80%93-live-concert-benefit-austin-enviro So, stay tuned, press coverage about the meeting will start rolling in once the meeting actually starts. If you have more questions and are attending the ESA meeting in Austin, you are welcome to stop by our Press Room, room 2 at the Convention Center. Cheers, Nadine Nadine Lymn ESA Director of Public Affairs Hello from Austin, folks! I would like to share some thoughts from my blog as I prepare for the ESA 2011 meeting starting here today, and wonder why this big meeting isn't in the news - anywhere: http://leafwarbler.posterous.com/a-few-thousand-ecologists-meet-in-the-city-to I would appreciate any feedback, on why ESA isn't more in the news, or whether it is just my misperception. Madhu ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Madhusudan Katti Associate Professor of Vertebrate Biology Department of Biology, M/S SB73 California State University, Fresno Fresno, CA 93740-8034 Email: mka...@csufresno.edu Tel: 559.278.2460 Fax: 559.278.3963 Lab: http://www.reconciliationecology.org/ ULTRA: http://urban-faces.org/ Blog: http://leafwarbler.posterous.com/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
