Cap’Com is an organization made up of 25 000 public and territorial professionals in the communications business ; each year, it sets up a “Grand Prix” for the communications campaigns organized by local authorities and public bodies. Acknowledged by the profession, it helps to highlight the up-coming tendencies in public communication.
The Paris Observatory has won the silver medal of the 26th Cap’ Com Prize, in the category « Understanding the Institution ».
The Observatory was awarded the prize for a communications campaign led in the spring of 2014 by the communications directorate and involving 19 astrophysics laboratories in the Île-de France under the principal heading "Astrophysics and the conditions for the emergence of life".
This event caught the attention of a 30 strong professional jury presided by Corinne Lepage, past minister for the environment, which appreciated the original and esthetical way that the idea of publicity posters was adapted to disseminate astronomical information to non-experts.
An innovative operation
Mid-way between a communications campaign and a scientific cultural event, ‘Astronomical tales’ innovates as far as the dissemination of knowledge is concerned. There were three distinct parts :
– a poster campaign which took place in the metro and the RER from the 23rd of April to the 17th of June 2014 : the basic idea was to “hijack” the usual publicity posters, in order expose the “man in the street”, who rarely sets foot in scientic and cultural centres, to sscience
– a web site http://www.lastronomieselaraconte.fr/ to enable members of the general public to follow up the points which are touched upon in the posters
– an open-air event, along the Banks of the Seine, which took place during the 1st of May weekend, and thanks to which members of the public could meet, during a stroll, astrophysicists from the 19 astrophysics laboratories of the Île-de-France