AGU 2008 Fall Meeting: Media Advisory 3

Preliminary Press Conference Topics;
Field Trip Preview;
You're Invited! NCSWA Holiday Dinner

AGU Release No. 08-39
26 November 2008

Contacts:

Peter Weiss
Phone: +1 202 777 7507
E-mail: pweiss@agu.org
Maria-José Viñas
Phone: +1 202 777 7530
E-mail: mjvinas@agu.org

Moscone Convention Center, San Francisco, California 15–19 December 2008

Contents of this message:

  1. Preliminary Press Conference Topics
  2. Press Room Update
  3. Field Trip Preview
  4. You Are Invited! NCSWA Holiday Dinner
  5. Attention PIOs: Sending Press Releases to Fall Meeting
  6. News Media registration information
  7. News Media Registration Form
  8. Who's coming

Please see:

Media Advisory 1 for important information regarding visas for international reporters and hotel bookings at meeting rates (The deadline is 14 November 2008.)

Media Advisory 2 for information on searching for sessions and abstracts of interest to you.


1. Preliminary Press Conference Topics

We are planning a number of press conferences on some of the newsworthy presentations at Fall Meeting. The following list is subject to change, including deletion of items, likely addition of other press conferences, and different emphases. Reporters are urged to check the sessions and abstracts and attend sessions on topics of interest to them, in addition to attending press conferences.

A subsequent media advisory, to be issued in early December, will contain the full list of press conferences, including days and times, explanatory blurbs and lists of participants. All press conferences take place in Room 3015, Moscone West (see Item 2, below).

2. Press Room Update

Upon arrival at Fall Meeting, go to the Media/Press Registration counter in the main registration area (Moscone West, Level 1). It will be located to the right in the Level 1 lobby. There, pick up your News Media badge (if preregistered) or to fill out the News Media Registration form to register on site. News Media Registration is complimentary.

The Press Room is Room 2015, Moscone West, Level 2. It is located just off the lobby of Level 2. It provides working space for reporters, including phone lines (no charge for business calls), two computer terminals, wi-fi for use with your own laptop, and space for socializing. Press releases and related materials provided by scientists and their institutions will be available.

Please note: AGU has discontinued the use of sets of printed books that describe the detailed scientific program of the Fall Meeting. Instead, the full scientific program and all 15,730 abstracts will be provided only on CDs and on the meeting Web site.

The Press Room will continue to provide copies a single book of general information regarding the meeting. It contains a summary schedule, session overviews ('Meeting Highlights'), an author index, maps, floor plans, and other information.

For anyone who would like to create their own digital copy of the detailed scientific program in advance of the meeting, the downloadable file of the meeting program and abstracts (plus instructions for burning it onto a CD) should be available next week at: http://www.agu.org/meetings/fm08/index.php/Program/HomePage

Breakfast (from 0730) and lunch (from 1130) are provided in the Press Room daily for News Media registrants, with coffee, tea, and soft drinks available all day. The Press Room is open daily from 0730 to 1800 (earlier closing on Friday). Phone number: +1-415-348-4432.

The Press Conference Room is Room 3015 Moscone West. It is located on Level 3, just off the lobby and directly above the Press Room.

3. Field Trip Preview

Come join this excursion into the world of state-of-the-art techniques and tools for precisely measuring movements (and some other aspects) of the Earth's crust. We are currently running a wait list but anyone interested in participating, please let us know via e-mail or the News Media Registration Form. In previous years, most wait-listed registrants who showed up prior to departure time have been accommodated, due to last minute cancellations and no-shows.

The San Francisco Bay Area is unusually rich in instruments such as borehole strain meters, GPS-based gauges, creep meters, and seismometers for tracking subtle slippage and dramatic lurches of the region’s fragmented crust. By visiting the gear at several 'live' field sites with U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists, field trippers will get acquainted with such gadgetry and what geoscientists learn from it—and even get some hands-on experience.

The tentative itinerary for the field trip includes the stops listed below. These choices are subject to change. A subsequent advisory will include a detailed itinerary with timing and descriptions of stopping places.

Field Trip Highlights (tentative):

4. You Are Invited! NCSWA Holiday Dinner, Wednesday, 17 December

[The following notice is provided on behalf of the Northern California Science Writers Association. Registration is required by Wed. 10 December at: http://www.ncswa.org/dinner_12-08.html]

HOLIDAY DINNER: Neuro-Magician Luigi Anzivino & A Tribute to David Perlman—all at the New Delhi Restaurant

Scientists have long used illusions as a pathway for unraveling neural bases of perception, attention, and consciousness. A magician with a PhD in psychology and behavioral neuroscience at UCLA, Anzivino will discuss how and why magic “works”—and what it can reveal about the workings of the human brain. But first the neuro-magician, who also works at San Francisco’s Exploratorium Museum, will entertain the crowd with a variety of card and other close-up sleight of hand magic during the open-bar happy hour. Be ready to correctly answer trivia questions for fabulous science-themed door prizes!

Special to this year's event: A tribute to David Perlman, whose career as a science writer at the San Francisco Chronicle has spanned 57 years and included many prizes—not to mention his being the namesake for AGU's prestigious science journalism awards. Among Perlman's news firsts, he was aboard a 1974 research cruise that discovered deep-sea hydrothermal vent communities.

Location:

160 Ellis Street (near Union Square)
San Francisco, Ca.
Phone: (415) 397-8470

For directions and parking information see: http://www.newdelhirestaurant.com/directions.html

Schedule:

6:00 pm – 7:30 pm No-host happy hour
7:30 pm – 8:45 pm Dinner
8:45 pm – Speaker
For further information (and registration), go to: http://www.ncswa.org/dinner_12-08.html

5. Attention PIOs: Sending Press Releases to Fall Meeting

Public information officers of universities, government agencies, and research institutions are encouraged to disseminate press releases and related documentation at Fall Meeting. We recommend around 50 copies of printed materials and three-to-five copies of broadcast quality video.

The easiest way to get these materials to the Press Room is to take them yourself, if you are going to Fall Meeting, or to give them to one of your scientists, with instructions to deliver them to the AGU Press Room (Room 2015) Moscone West, from Monday, 15 December.

If you prefer, you may send these materials (but not to arrive before 12 December) by FedEx, UPS, or DHL to the following address:

Peter Weiss
Sir Francis Drake Hotel
450 Powell Street
San Francisco, California 94102

Phone: +1-415-392-7755

Shipments to the above address should be timed to arrive on Friday, 12 December, or after. They will be displayed from Monday, 15 December or as soon as received (if later than Monday).

Remaining materials may be collected from Room 2015 on Friday, 19 December, at 1300h, after which they will be scrapped.

6. News Media registration information

Eligibility for press registration is limited to the following persons:

Note: Representatives of publishing houses, for-profit corporations, and the business side of news media must register at the main registration desk at the meeting and pay the appropriate fees, regardless of possession of any of the above documents. They are not accredited as Press at the meeting. Scientists who are also reporters and who are presenting at this meeting (oral or poster session) may receive News Media credentials if they qualify (see above), but must also register for the meeting and pay the appropriate fee as a presenter.

News Media registrants will receive a badge that provides access to any of the scientific sessions of Fall Meeting, as well as to the Press Room and Press Conference Room. No one will be admitted without a valid badge. Please be prepared to show identification.

7. News Media Registration Form

The News Media Registration Form is set up for online submission only. Please go to: http://www.agu.org/meetings/fm08.old/index.php/News/Register

The last day for advance News Media registration, assuring that your badge will be waiting for you when you arrive, is Friday, 5 December 2008. You may also register onsite.

8. Who's coming

The online list of journalists who have preregistered for the Meeting is updated daily and may be seen at: http://www.agu.org/meetings/fm08.old/index.php/News/HomePage
(Scroll down to see list.)