On the communication front, our main objective is to mediate the means of dissemination (social networks, podcasts, magazines), in order to make our team better known and recognized and consequently more relevant both locally and globally, reinforcing our causes and ideas, thus bringing more people and organizations to know and embrace our cause.
In addition, we also act as disseminators of the scientific environment, constantly producing scientific content (reels and posts), mainly about synthetic biology on our social networks, encouraging learning and enabling more and more new people to learn about and practice science, especially future IGEM teams.
Showing our logo's creative process
Communication
The idea of choosing digital media (mainly Instagram and Facebook) to publicize our team and project was due to the current number of users of both platforms, where there are 500 million daily users on Instagram and 1.82 billion users on Facebook, thus being excellent means of dissemination, especially of scientific information.
We currently have an Instagram account with more than 1,800 followers and an average of 2,000 views of our posted content, where we constantly share informative posts and more casual reels about our team, project and synthetic biology in general.
In our posts, we present our project, whether it's the members who carry it out, our chassis, or even the process we went through to arrive at our theme. Above all, however, we focus on teaching synthetic biology, addressing mainly the scientific part of our project, showing processes that we have carried out, or intended to carry out, throughout the year. The aim is to encourage more and more people to do science, and perhaps even to take part in future IGEM projects.
Most of the time, we choose to cover more casual topics in our reels, whether it's the day-to-day life of the team members, an event our team has participated in, or even a few jokes, always with the aim of attracting more people to like and get to know our project. However, we also use reels as a way of publicizing other IGEM teams and even social causes that affect the environment.
We also use our stories quite often, where we show the most "human" part of the team, our stories are our most personal way, where we show a little of the team's reunions (such as meetings), events we attend, and we share important environmental dates (such as Amazon Day). Basically, we share the backstage of our activities.
Results
Our social networks in general achieved good results throughout the year, with high numbers of views, likes and shares. Our community is increasingly engaged with our content, and above all, we managed to create the connection we wanted, whether with other IGEM teams, or researchers and those interested in our topic!
A sample of our results and our publicity is the publication of our team in two articles, which present our project, trajectory and objectives for the competition.
Important events
Throughout the year our team took part in several important "events", both in person and online, such as technology and innovation events, meetings with other IGEM teams, meetings with important people, podcasts and even the team's participation in a social cause to revitalize an extremely polluted river, which affected local communities. Our main goal with these meetings was to publicize our team and project, and often to get more visibility for the problem and our struggle. Some of the most memorable meetings we had were:
Brazilian Director of ITAIPU BINACIONAL - Enio Verri
Our focus was on presenting our project and asking for the possibility of sponsorship so that we could carry it out!
Director of the ITAIPU Technology Park (PTI) - Irineu Colombo
Our focus was to present our project and talk about the possibility of our team being incubated in the technology park, so that in future years we can establish a synthetic biology hub in Foz do Iguaçu, where we would have our own synthetic biology laboratories in the technology park itself.
Director of International Relations for Foz do Iguaçu - Jihad Abu Ali
Our focus was to present our project, in order to draw up an action plan so that from next year (2024) our team will have more connections and possibilities, thus expanding to other continents.
“Diz AÍ” Podcast - Valentina Virginio
We had the opportunity to present our team and project to new people from different areas.
The technology and innovation event "Summit Iguassu Valley", organized by the largest innovation ecosystem in western Paraná, Iguassu Valley.
We presented our project on the Loumar Turismo podcast, we also had two presentation sessions with an audience and a stand at a project showcase, where we were able to display project banners and stickers, as well as networking throughout the event.
Events and meetings with Synbio Brasil - an ecosystem created to connect and train the next generation of bioengineers in Brazil.
The main focus was to present our project and get to know other IGEM projects and teams, so that we could create an information dynamic between the teams.
“Synbio Fiesta" event - organized by some IGEM teams and ambassadors
We were able to do extensive networking that allowed us to present our team and project, as well as to meet other IGEM teams and projects from Latin America, thus establishing more contacts for possible current and future partnerships.
Movement to revitalize the Almada River, Foz do Iguaçu.
We tried to help clean up and publicize the problem of this river, which was extremely polluted and affected both the ecosystem that exists there and the local communities that live there. The movement was an initiative of UNILA's YPORÃ project, in partnership with our team. In the end, we achieved great results: we managed to raise awareness among the community, alerted the relevant authorities and, as a result, got the attention of the media and the local government, which will now help to revitalize this beautiful body of water.
