Discover yesterday’s Storify summary (see pdf file attached), looking back on the first of three main conference days.

Newcomers started early with a networking breakfast, before joining all other attendees at the Opening event, whose speakers included Manuel Heitor, Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education of Portugal.

The winners of the 2017 Mariano Gago Ecsite Awards were revealed at the same event. NOESIS - Thessaloniki Science  Center & Technology Museum (Greece) got a Special mention for courageous leadership for welcoming children from the refugee camps of Thessaloniki and offering them a scientific, educational, cultural and social programme. TRACES – Espace des Sciences Pierre-Gilles De Gennes in Paris (France) won in the ‘Smart and Simple’ category for the Frugal Science exhibition, a smart, cost-effective project that proposes a new take on both exhibition making and tinkering. Dialogue Social Enterprise, Hamburg (Germany) won in the ‘Sustainable Success’ category for its Dialogue in the Dark exhibition concept, a long-standing success story with remarkable reach and an original and robust business model, true to our field's values of inclusion and diversity.

The conference’s Business Bistro opened its doors for the morning coffee break. For the rest of the day, participants were able to pick and choose between ten parallel session strands: the “bubble effect”, learning ecosystems, behavioural visitor research, tinkering with circuits and many more were discussed and debated…

In the evening everyone re-convened for the Gala Dinner, held in the lavish setting of UNESCO World Heritage Site Palácio da Bolsa.

Follow the #Ecsite2017 feed on Twitter, connect on Facebook, browse through pictures on Flickr… and stay tuned for today’s Storify summary to be published here tomorrow morning.