A bit joking, a bit seriously, the outgoing president of the World Federation of Science Journalists, Pallab Ghosh, played with suspense. In Central Hall Westminster's Great Hall, before 900 science journalists from all over the world, he announced the results of the contest to host the next World Conference of Science Journalists.
Along the halls some already mentioned the possible winner. There were four contestants, and for the first time, three of the bids came from the developing world. More specifically, they came from Africa. And even more specifically, they came from Uganda, Kenya and Egypt. From the developed world the bidder was Finland.
Ghosh, before all colleagues, made enough pauses to invite silence, but then he took out of his pocket an envelope as the ones used in the Oscar announcements. Amidst the general laughter, he tried to open the envelope until he succeeded.
He said it had been a difficult decision, because presentations were all very good. For instance, Finland even distributed brochures and had a superbly produced presentation. But in the end. Ghosh said the chosen country was the one that, according to the judges, had a proposal than would to the most to better and promote science journalism: Egypt,
The four contestants had presented their bids before a 50 members delegate comission on monday. Some of the journalists that participated in that meeting commented that the bids were all interesting and that the most viable candidate was Cairo. It makes sense: Even though Africa's science journalism, which has had the support of one of the World Federation of Science Journalists' key projects, SjCOOP, has grown with giant strides, the moste ecumenical vision was the one presented by egyptian journalists, with the support of the US National Association of Science Writers.
To sum it up, Cairo will host in 2011 the Seventh World Conference of Science Journalists. The happy shouts with which the egyptian delegates greeted the news indicate the organization of that next meeting will be pursued with all the enthusiasm the gathering merits. Contratulations to those colleagues for their enthusiasm, growth, strength and energy.
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