Why looking forward to Grindelwald
More than 100 PlanetS members and associates will travel to Grindelwald to the second General Assembly that is taking place at the Hotel Sunstar from 25 – 27 January 2016. Michel Mayor and Brian Schmidt of the PlanetS’ advisory board have also registered.
Hotel Sunstar, Grindelwald
“The location of the hotel is great”, says Janine Jungo, NCCR project assistant. Grindelwald is easily accessible by public transportation, and it takes only 7 minutes to walk from the train station to the Sunstar. “On the south side you have a beautiful view of famous mount Eiger, and to the north there is First”, explains the organizer who checked the locality: “The hotel is a nice wooden building with a pleasant lobby – well-suited for get-togethers and lively discussions.”
„Gather all NCCR and associated members together, to report to all of them what has been done during the last year, and trigger and foster collaborations between members is the main purpose of the General Assembly,” says Yann Alibert, NCCR scientific officer. Another goal is to welcome our new NCCR members and integrate them into the program. “I would like that collaborations between projects develop“, Yann Alibert summarizes: „We have started some collaborations already, we need now to push them so that concrete outcome are produced – publications, etc..“
Splinter sessions and workshops
Whereas last year, a lot of time was devoted to present the NCCR structure and projects, this time the structure of the General Assembly will be quite different. Besides plenary sessions devoted to report from the general level of the NCCR and from projects highlights, there will be splinter sessions on two different scientific subjects that have the potential to interest different projects. „Again, the idea is to foster interactions, by providing attendants with some scientific contributions from other projects, but still in a domain that is not too far from their own scientific expertise“, Yann Alibert explains. In addition, workshops will be organized to train people in some soft-skills as communication, techno transfer, gender equality, career opportunities.
Janine Jungo is confident that the technical infrastructure of the hotel will meet high standards. The wifi connection can be simultaneously used by more than 100 people and all beamers are new. But the project assistant warns: “There is a distraction risk because the conference room has windows to the Eiger.” Although being a bit nervous she is looking forward to the event: “We are a good organising team and will be able to manage unforeseen problems.” Yann Alibert is now finalizing the programme and means: “Finally, we will also organise some social event.” But he doesn’t want to give away any details.
http://nccr-planets.ch/event/planets-general-assembly-ii/
Categories: Internal Newsletter
