STARSTRUCK

Express Yourself…..and make others happy!

After a 4 day marathon our dissemination materials had gone back into the transport trollies. 400 KG including pictures, posters, computers, a medical dummy and an operating table were now back in the box waiting for Kühne and Nagel, our shipment company to give them a lift back to Munich.

Moving the shipment out of the exhibition was quite an undertaking, which involved 4 people and a forklift. However, the guys from Litexpo team clearly were high level professionals and the whole thing went smooth without any drama. ICTs are large scale events with thousands of visitors and everything’s got to be clockwork.

Vilnius was no exception. Saying that, “clockwork” always also means tight schedules for all concerned, including the FI-STAR team. Our networking session “Modular Medical Architectures” had gone down well with the audience. In fact the resonance has been overwhelming and we had struggled for space. After 90 minutes of screaming at a larger than expected audience in a wider than expected space without microphone my voice was like sandpaper. However, we had a flight to catch. Tiredness was kicking in. We left the hall, dragging the obligatory suitcase and laptop bag behind us. Naturally I was at ease at this moment as one is always pleased if things go well and you are on your way to the comfort of your own home. I found myself dragged back into the here and now by some whistling and calls coming from the expo arena. Somebody seems to be trying to catch my attention and looking up while dragging my stuff behind me I noted Peter Fatelnig coming running after me waving his hand in the air. Peter is the deputy Head of Net Innovation at the European Commission and carries responsibility for our project. The charismatic Austrian obviously must have made an effort to catch me as he was slightly out of breath. “I just wanted to say hello…” we shook hands. “How did you like it? FI-STAR – our booth?” His face showed a big smile”. “Fantastic, very nice”. I was thrilled to get this kind of reply. We exchanged some quick words and Peter had to hurry back. I felt pleased for the team because Peter is a busy man and knowing him he would not have spent extra time to chase me if he had not been serious. We exchanged some quick words and Peter hurried back to his 1 million other commitments. Funny enough we caught up again later the day at the airport and he confirmed that the EC was very pleased with the FI-STAR dissemination efforts.

This is a big deal for the EC, Peter, myself and the rest of the team as we all took on a big gamble by trying out something new which is now about to become a benchmark for dissemination performance.

Key players in our dissemination strategy which builds on the heavy use of film and social media such as facebook, youtube and twitter are Jonnie Turpie, MBE and the production company Maverick TV, Oli Mival and Ivo Holanec from Edinburgh Napier University, Marius Thuemmler from Medichem. The secret seems to lie in the right combination of factual and artistic elements including music, videos and photos. The production of attractive material is far more than the eye can see. It looks easy to the viewers – that’s clearly the job. But it is far more complex than just swinging a video camera around.

As part of the FI-STAR dissemination strategy we plan and improvise at the same time. We use scripts, but are always ready to abandon all plans if something important and new comes our way. We have people who script video clips, musicians who compose our tracks, we use still-pictures, graphic design, cartoons and a host of people who organise  events and manage the digital media FI-STAR community. Vilnius caused a surge in tweets and visits to the FI-STAR homepage and the fistarblog.

So here is a thanks to everyone who has been involved in the dissemination effort so far. . . . And to Peter and his colleagues who keep us going.