Every year at the Ecsite Conference we hold a Business Bistro, a marketplace for all sorts of scicomm companies to showcase their products and services. Unfortunately, due to the Covid crisis, #Ecsite2020 could not take place, but that didn't stop us from wanting to share great business opportunities with our community! On 19 June Ecsite held a full day of sessions on our Crowdcast platform, in which more than 20 companies from across the globe presented their exhibitions and ideas. The day, just like Ecsite day (11 June), was part of the #EcsiteOnline initiative to keep our network actively connected in these unstable times, all of which was free to attend for the entire scicomm network. We could not have done it without the help, the time and efforts of our members, curators and speakers, whom we would like to thank once more!
The Business day began at 10:30 with a welcome from our anchors for the day, Raquel da Cunha and Helen Wilks, from Ecsite's Communications and Events team. They introduced the Ecsite app with a little demo as well as the programme for the day.
The first of the Business day sessions was brought to you by the Natural History Museum of Toulouse and consisted of a kids' travelling exhibit based on the animated movie The Jungle Bunch, produced at TAT productions. Professionals from the museum and the studio described the many steps of its creation. Next up was CREATE.eu, based in Ghent, Belgium, who explored the world of immersive exhibitions in the beautiful presentation of their portfolio. Universcience then presented their futuristic projection exhibits in a varied third session, "When exhibitions about the future become the present", followed by a session from the Natural History Museum in London on their exhibition Jurassic Oceans, as well as their Wildlife Photographer of the Year award, in a visually and mentally stimulating presentation. Canadian company CREO then discussed how games can engage audiences of all ages in the presentation of their methods for gamification of scicomm. In a longer, keynote-style session from YIPP, they discussed how to build interactive museum exhibits without the classic touch techniques, to "corona-proof" museums and science centres in a post-crisis world. Last but not least, 18 exhibitors from accross the planet gave quick, two-minute pitches of their touring exhibitions in the flash session "What's new in touring exhibitions".
It was a fascinating and varied day of business connection-making and networking, with a diverse audience of over 300 registered attendees. If you missed out and would like to find out more or want to re-live any moments of Business day, you can do so anytime on our YouTube playlist.
The Ecsite day and the #EcsiteOnline webinars are also available for replay.