When few years ago I invited my student to do a short 3 min pitch on their selected topic, I realized that I do not really know how to do a good pitch. Indeed, as scientists we are very good at communicating our results to other scientists, especially in our field. However, in order to create the bridges between science and society we need to transfer our knowledge in a completely different way. We need to communicate with some fun and simplicity without decreasing the scientific precision – a skill that we are usually not taught during our career.  I started browsing online to give my students the best possible tips, and I found the FameLab – an international scientific monologues competition which the main purpose is to improve our communication skills, talking about our research with a public audience, and to join a global network of science communicators in different fields. Additionally, they are giving very helpful and clear instruction on how to create your own scientific pitch.

My students did great pitch presentations and we indeed had a lot of fun, comparing to previous years with power point presentations. And I kind of forgot about the whole FameLab concept until this year when I had a conversation with my colleagues on science communication. I told them about this cool thing (i.e., FameLab) and my experience with the students, and when I entered their website I saw that the application deadline for 2020 competition is in 1 day! As my New Year intention was to have some fun, I decided to apply, and guess what … I was selected to Spanish national semi-finals among 11 other amazing people! So please keep your fingers crossed because standing in front of 400 people without being able to hide behind a laptop or a power point to help to cover up sudden memory loss is completely new to me!