Cut, glue and create

There are days when you can't do anything but sully your hands. Get the job done. Or at least plan it to be done.

While conceiving visual appearance of Euprera 2010 congress, I need to feel the paper, cut some wounds to my fingers, draw with marker pen to my cheek, frown and squeeze failed sketches and tear some paper.

Computer is too clinical tool for that. So here I am. Cutting, gluing and creating with my scissors and pens in the web 2.0 era.

It is surprisingly hypnotic sound that comes when paper is been cut. Squeezing some sketches is a good way to blow off steam and frustration. And when feeling distressed it comes a lot cheaper to throw some paper on the floor than throw the computer towards the wall.

So when you get some glue to your fingers from your badge or guidebook in Euprera 2010 -congress here in Jyväskylä, you know who has sullied your hands...

Breaking news: EUPRERA 2010 is here!

Greetings from the EUPRERA 2010 media team! The congress preparations are moving along, and the media team has also started its work in getting in contact with local and national media to inform them about our upcoming congress. We are positive that the very current theme of the congress will interest different types of media and that it will enable diverse media co-operation.

For now, the media team's work is mostly about building relations and informing the media. Basic messages should be clear: What is EUPRERA 2010 going to be and why should people be interested about it? The very current congress theme will surely be an asset in promoting the congress as a source for distinguished news stories! Also our great keynote speakers will surely attract media. A sign of this can already be seen in an article in the TIME, where EUPRERA 2010 keynote speaker Prof. Timothy Coombs comments on Tiger Woods' apology. Crisis communication is no doubt THE topic!

Still, the media team is not relying solely on ”traditional” media. As all active users of social media know, the EUPRERA 2010 team has also been active on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Social media has turned out to be an effective way to reach people and promote interest towards the congress. Of course, many things in social media should still be done better. As the registration for the congress and the congress itself is getting closer, the information provided should be even more up-to-date and informative about the future. Altogether, working through social media has been great fun! I have to say I'm pleased that now when I'm on Facebook, I can actually say that I'm working! :)

Abstracts review started today!

All, more than 100 abstracts are sent to vetting committee leader, to prof Inger Jensen now. Last phase with abstracts was busy, as we, specially Päivi of course, did many handwork in place of use our technical possibilities comes from our registration system. But sometimes it is also necessary to be ready for different solutions. Main idea is that vetting committee can start work now and let's hope the conference content will be interesting.

Partners, an organisers best friends

Things are moving ahead with the preparations and the spirits are high among the team. A strong belief of “Yes we can!” is evident. Many things are still unclear and others are sure to come up that have to be dealt with, but we’re going forward.

Unfortunately very few things in life are free and organising a congress is no different. There are so many things, some smaller and some bigger, that are needed. Some can be borrowed, some can be manufactured, but some have to be bought.

Money may run the world, but partnerships are about so much more. If you get assistance in the form of goods, that means they won’t have to be bought. An event as big as this is not going to succeed or even be organised without good partners. That’s why we’re constantly looking for new organisations to make the congress happen. At least this year’s theme, “Communication in a changing society; dynamics, risks and uncertainty“, will most likely be of interest to all companies in this economically uncertain time. We’ll see.

I have to confess, saying you’ll get the business side under control is a lot easier than actually doing it. That’s where a team you can count on really is weighed in gold. With the people I have doing this with me, I have full confidence we can pull this off. We’ll see how I feel in about a month. Has every door been shut in front of me and calls left unanswered, or do we have a full set of committed and enthusiastic partners for the conference?

I believe each and every organisation can get something out of the congress. The congress brings together the elite of the communication experts. This event will be all about collaboration and discussion between different experts from the both sides, the practioners and the academics. It's a great arena to present problems and learn the newest ways of tackling the challenges.

Getting involved is as easy as contacting us.

Abstracts, many abstracts

Wow! Looks very promising. Our submission system is so full of abstracts, that it takes many minutes to scroll down and see the end of the list. : ) Altogether 96 of them. At first I was little bit worried about the situation, not getting enough abstracts by the deadline. Kaja comforted me and said: "Everybody will wait until the last day, before sending anything". And that was the case. Of course, should have known that, because I'm also acting in the nick of time. Somehow you are able to give your best under a pressure of runnig out of time.

So here it starts. The vetting committee will begin its job and as a result we will have a great variety of high quality papers to be presented in Jyväskylä. :) See you then!