Science centre congress for SA
19 June 2007
South Africa has won its bid to host the sixth Science Centre World Congress in 2011, fending off competition from Egypt to become the first African country to host the event.
The congress will bring "hundreds of the world's best in the field of science communication" to the MTN ScienCentre at Canal Walk in Cape Town "just a year after the sportsmen come here for the World Cup," MTN ScienCentre head Julie Cleverdon said in a statement last week.
"This gives South Africans a chance to heighten our profile in two very different fields."
Cleverdon recently returned from the 2007 European Conference for Science Centres and Museums (ECSITE) in Lisbon, Portugal, where the bid was decided.
"Science centres, like aquariums, are a significant contributor to tourism around the world," Cleverdon said. "Hosting such a congress will do a lot to put South African science centres on the tourism map."
Retired MTN ScienCentre founder Mike Bruton chaired the South African committee that successfully bid for the science centre conference.
Bruton also attended the ECSITE conference, as did Alfred Tsipa of the University of Zululand science centre in Richard's Bay in KwaZulu-Natal, in his capacity as president of the SA Association of Science and Technology Education Centres.
SouthAfrica.info reporter
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