Communication "hooks"

To: All involved in planning the What Works? SBCC Summit

Hi folks and happy new year. Trust that all is well. There have been a number of developments with the Summit that provide reasons or hooks for any Summit related communications you may wish to send to your staff/networks/members. The Communication sub-group members are engaged in active process to inform and engage people in ghe Summit. If you can also support this communication process that would be excellent. A few "hooks" that could help with that communication. 

1. The Summit Secretariat has given permission to communciate:

(a) Registration numbers: There are now 320 people formally registered for the event; the target number to attend is 1,000 - so registration progress is really solid esp given that there are still 2 months left to register, accepted abstracts have not yet been decided and speakers have not yet been announced

(b) Abstracts numbers: That 1,269 abstract proposals were received; this is double the number of abstract proposals submitted for the Addis Summit in 2016 and provides further evidence of the strong interest in this event.

The reason for perhaps communciating this data to your networks is that it demonstrates the Summit will go ahead with significant numbers and substantive content. I am sure a lot of people hold off to see how the summit planning is progressing before registering.  So would be good to let them know.

2. Scholarships: The scholarship process has been re-scheduled. Scholarships will support successful candidates with travel and per diem support to attend the Nusa Dua Summit. The Scholarship application process will now open on January 22, 2018 and close on February 5, 2018 11:59 pm EST. Further details can be seen at this link Would be good if this could be communicated.  

3. Abstracts decisions and communication implications: The abstracts decisions have been made and communicated. I think we can reasonably expect that this will lead to a quick increase in registrations by those whose abstracts are accepted. But it would still be good to find ways to reinforce/encourage/support/motivate those whose abstracts are not accepted to still attend the Nusa Dua Summit.

Thanks - happy to answer any questions and issues - Warren (and on behalf of the Communications sub-group).